


ain't that a kick in the head

by burakinnon



Category: Men's Hockey RPF
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Anal Sex, Friends With Benefits, Friends to Lovers, Knotting, M/M, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Mutual Pining, Overstimulation, Phone Sex, Pillow & Blanket Forts, Rimming, Rutting, Sex Toys, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-02
Updated: 2020-08-20
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:40:52
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 27,555
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22090753
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/burakinnon/pseuds/burakinnon
Summary: Andre always thought he was a beta. Until everything goes to shit and he presents in the middle of the game.
Relationships: Andre Burakovsky/Nathan MacKinnon
Comments: 41
Kudos: 252





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> non-beta'd, just proofread
> 
> also, this is my first fic ever so please be nice lol
> 
> also i'm making up this a/b/o stuff as i go along so if it's not your usual a/b/o story, i'm sorry

Andre knew something was wrong as soon as the second period started. He feels weird, his head feels heavy and he feels hot, as if he’s coming down with something. 

“You’re up,” Bednar says and next thing Andre knows is that he’s on the ice, eyes trained on the puck while he tries to ignore the weird feeling he’s going through at this moment.

Thirty seconds into the line change, Nate scores after Andre passes the puck to Donskoi, who passes then to Nate. And suddenly, Andre’s arms are full of Nate and his teammates, screaming at each other as they equalize the game against the Wild.

Andre feels Nate bump his helmet against his, and suddenly, Andre’s senses are overwhelmed with scents he’s never smelled before. There’s a mixture of cinnamon, apples, among other things Andre can’t care to pinpoint right now on top of the usual scent of ice, metal, and sweat. It causes him to sneeze and watches Nate skate by the bench, fist bumping and high fiving the rest of the team.

He has possession of the puck just after Kadri wins the face off when his vision blurs and he feels too hot to be comfortable. He gets checked onto the boards by a player in green - with nostrils flaring and attempts to bury his nose on Andre’s neck before one of the linesmen, all betas as per the NHL's rules, yanks him away from Andre, who is currently laying on the ice squirming, pupils dilated. 

“W-what the fuck is happening to me,” he breathes out in confusion. He feels too hot and he can’t breathe. He takes a deep breath and wants to throw up at the overwhelming mixture of scents. He hears the whistle blow and his line mates crowd him along with the linesmen.

Everything is a blur and his ears are ringing. He looks at the linesman who’s kneeling beside him, his mouth moving, but Andre can’t seem to hear him or understand what they’re trying to tell him. All he feels is the unusual wet sensation in between his legs. He’s so, so, _ so _ confused. He can feel hands on him, removing his helmet, and he can’t help but to moan out loud. Nate enters his line of sight with eyebrows furrowed. “Please,” Andre begs and tries to reach for Nate; he’s not exactly sure what he wants but he’s overwhelmed with agonizing need. 

He blacks out after he feels a sharp prick on his neck.

\--

He wakes up in the locker room alone with the team doctor. His head hurts and he feels sticky with sweat and other things he’s too embarrassed to admit. His jersey is still on, but his skates and helmet is gone.

He clears his throat. “Um. So.. what happened?”

The doctor looks up from his phone and gives Andre a small smile. “Oh! You’re awake, good,” he drags his chair closer and sits in front of Andre. Andre sits up. He feels like he got hit by a truck. “I had to give you an emergency heat suppressant,” he gestures to his own neck, “You’re probably feeling lethargic and have a headache, but that’s just the normal side effects of the suppressant and will go away in a few hours.”

Andre blinks at him, too caught up with the word ‘heat.’ He chuckles nervously, dread in his voice, “No, no, no, I think you’re getting this wrong. I’m a beta. Always have been.” 

“There’s been many cases of late presentations. This is mainly due to a high stress environment. This is not that common in the NHL, but there’s been a few cases of late presentations happening in other sports leagues. It’s nothing to be scared about and we’re here to help you. I also looked at your medical and family history, it looks like both your parents are betas, correct?” 

Andre nods, chewing on his lip as he tries to process all of this. He guesses what? That he’s an omega now? Sure, he’s messed around before but it was usually with other betas. All the alphas and omegas he knows are either bonded, or just doesn’t mess with betas like him. He doesn’t even know much about omegas at all besides that they go into heats. His face flushes at the thought and he shifts in his seat.

“Hmm, it’s most likely that they both carry the omega gene, then” the doctor adds. “Well there’s a few things you need to know,” and he babbles on, giving Andre a crash course on Omega 101, to Andre’s dismay. 

\--

His mind is reeling at the amount of information dumped on him in the past hour. He’s already back in his hotel room, freshly showered, after talking to the doctor and being dumped a box of ‘emergency heat toys’ as the doctor called it. He told him that the emergency heat suppressants will only last a few hours, before he goes into full heat mode. 

_ “Wait, if you gave me suppressants earlier, I don’t understand why you can’t just give me more so I don’t.. I don’t have to go through..,” Andre’s face flushes, he can’t even say ‘heat’ without wanting to disappear into the floor._

_“Well, it’s advisable not to suppress your first heat as an omega. It’s recommended for omegas to go through their first full heats before introducing the use of suppressants. I only gave you a small enough dose to pause your flash heat for your protection,” the doctor states and continues onto his spiel of Omega 101. _

_“I hate this so much,” Andre mumbles woefully and tries his best to pay attention. _

The television is on the last 5 minutes of the game and he watches his own team lose to the Wild. He turns it off and places the remote on his nightstand. He feels bad for leaving the game early, but he’s also kinda grateful about it. He really doesn’t want to have this conversation with his friends and teammates. He still can’t even fathom his situation right now. The fact that he’s suddenly an omega. 

He buries his face onto his pillow. He suppresses the urge to cry and wills himself to fall asleep. Maybe he can sleep this ‘heat’ thing away and wake up fine and dandy.

\--

He wakes up in the middle of the night feeling too hot, his clothes soaking with sweat and sticking to his skin. He squirms and kicks off his comforter off the bed and shivers when the movement causes the fabric of his boxers to rub against his hardening dick. It also causes him to gush slick out and he can’t help but to cry out a whimper.

“Oh my god,” he breathes out desperately. He bites his lip and looks around his room, the bathroom lights still on from earlier when he took a shower. He reads ‘11:38 PM’ on the digital clock in front of the television and catches sight of the box the doctor handed to him earlier. He shakes his head to himself. He refuses to open the box, too ashamed to do so.

He trails down his hand and pushes his boxers off, putting his fist around his cock. He’s so hard it hurts. His cock is glistening with precome, he’s so wet already. He strokes himself a few times before coming hard. 

It doesn’t help. He feels like he got checked onto the boards illegally. He’s still hard as a rock and he’s leaking slick all over his bedsheets. He lets out a sob and lets his fingers trail below his cock. He slips a finger into the wet heat and lets out an embarrassing moan. He’s never been this wet before. Sure, he's done this before but it was never like this. He adds another finger and another and pumps them, his feet planted against the sheets. 

He feels a jolt of blinding pleasure when his fingers brushes against his prostate and tries to hit that spot again with his fingers but with difficulty. He switches positions, now on his knees, ass up in the air, and his fingers buried inside him. He sobs as he brushes against it again and comes hard, come splattering all over the sheets. He takes his fingers out and wipes his slick against the sheets. 

Being an omega, Andre finds out, is not that bad. Especially if he gets to come this hard every time he jacks off. He turns over, watching the ceiling as he tries to catch his breath, head still heavy with want and need. 

He comes again. And again. And again.

He takes it back, being an omega isn’t fun at all.

It fucking sucks.

He’s ridden his fingers so many times in the past three hours, and he’s still not satisfied. He needs something bigger and thicker than his fingers. 

So, he opens The Box. 

On a normal night, he would be embarrassed about the contents. For now, he desperately needs something bigger than his fingers inside him. There’s anal beads, a box of condoms, different flavored lubes and normal lube, and a whole lot of dildo in various shapes and sizes. He wonders if the team doctor just carries all this shit everywhere they drag him as an emergency kit for the omegas in the team. He dumps the contents on the far end of the bed and grabs a random pink dildo with a knot almost as big as his fist. His mouth salivates at the idea of pushing that in him and how full it’ll make him feel.

He pushes the head of the dildo into his slick hole and moans as it enters him. This is so much better than his fingers, but not as good as a real cock. He sinks down to it and starts riding the toy, slick sounds and his eager moans surrounding his hotel room as well as the heavy cloying scent of sex. He cries out every time the head of the toy presses against his prostate.

His thighs are straining and shaking as he brings his hips down hard onto the dildo, thinking about how good it would be if there was someone at the other end. Someone like Nate, who was the last person he remembers seeing before he blacked out on the ice.

His thoughts start to run wild as he thinks about Nate’s strong muscular body fucking into him, telling Andre how good he is taking his cock and how he’s made for it. How Andre would wrap his arms around him, entangle his hand on blonde hair and ask to fuck him harder, faster, and rougher. 

“Oh god,” Andre moans out as he rides the dildo harder. “Yes, please, fuck me, Nate” he babbles on as he rides his pleasure out. _ “Nate,” _ he begs desperately.

“I’m so close,” he whines as he pushes the dildo frantically in and out of him once more before pressing the knot into him, popping inside and keeping him fuller than he’d ever felt before and comes for the sixth time this night with a scream. He’s high from his orgasm, taking deep breaths, and closes his eyes. 

\--

He wakes up with someone knocking on his hotel room, feeling sticky and with something heavy pressing into him. His fingers trail below and holds purchase of the end of the knotting dildo, pulling it out with a soft whimper. He’s so sore and so achy in so many places. He tosses the dildo, still wet from his slick, on the bed and lets out a sigh. Does this mean his heat has been broken? He remembers the doctor mentioning something like that last night, but he doesn’t really remember. He’s still overwhelmed about this whole thing. He doesn’t want to deal with anyone right now, but the incessant knocking on his door is slowly giving him a headache.

“Are you gonna let me in? I have breakfast!” someone yells from the door, he can’t pinpoint who it is yet since the voice is muffled.

He grabs a robe from the bathroom and tries to fix his hair with no avail. Looking in the mirror, he looks like shit. His hair looks like a bird nest, his lips are red from biting on it too much from last night, and at the thought of last night - Andre flushes from head to toe. He’s still not ready for that conversation. Ever.

“Okay, okay, okay!” Andre calls out and opens the door a tad bit, peering a little bit to see Bellemare holding a tray of continental breakfast. His stomach rumbles loudly at the sight.

“Well good morning, sleeping beauty,” Bellemare says and dumps the tray onto Andre’s arms, pushing the door open to let himself in. He turns to Andre and scrunches his nose. “Well you look and smell like you were busy last night!” he says cheerfully, causing Andre to sputter and his face to heat up. He doesn’t wanna talk about this at all.

Bellemare holds a hand on his nose, even though he’s an omega, it’s still an overwhelming scent. “You stink,” he says nasally through pinched nose. He grins at the sight of the sex toys haphazardly thrown all over the bed and turns to Andre to give him an eyebrow waggle. “Oh you definitely were busy!”

Andre has forgotten about those and places the tray on the table as he runs to the bed and tries to cover the toys under the blankets. “Oh my god, don’t- Don’t say anything, please,” he begs.

Bellemare walks towards the balcony and opens the glass door a little bit to let some of the cloying smell of sex out. “Oh, don’t be dramatic, Burky. Now eat up. I was elected to talk to you about Stuff,” he waggles his eyebrows at Andre again and Andre can’t help but to groan. “Also, I brought a gatorade bottle. Drink that whole bottle up, you’re probably parched.”

Andre huffs, still trying to hide the sex toys and red faced. “I already had The Talk with the doctor last night. I don’t need anymore, trust me,” he mutters as he takes a seat and grabs a piece of bacon. He’s starving.

“Yeah, but you also need someone to talk to you about,” Bellemare gestures around him, “this. Not as a doctor to patient thing, but to teammate to teammate, a friend to a friend, or in a.. parental way, you know? I’m older than you by 10 years,” he pouts at that but waves it off and adds, “I’m here to talk to you about the birds and the bees, mon chéri!”

Andre blinks at him. “No, thanks,” he says in a mouthful of scrambled eggs and bacon. This is so not in his diet, but he couldn’t care less. Last night took a toll on him.

“Aw come on, you were so out of it last night! The team doctor talked to us about your situation. The whole team is worried about you! Nate even got in a fight. It was, heh, _ Wild _.”

Andre blinks at him. Nate got into a fight?

“Did you get it? Wild? Because we were against them last night.”

“Wait, back up, Nate got in a fight?” He watched the last 5 minutes of the game last night, but he doesn’t really remember much. He just remembers watching the team lose. 

“Yeah, he went caveman on that guy that tried to sniff you. It’s all over sportsnet.”

“Oh,” Andre says weakly, and that’s all he can say as his mind runs off to Nate going that far to defend his honor. He feels butterflies in his stomach. “I’m sorry.”

“What? Don’t be. Alphas know better than to do that kind of shit to Omegas. Plus, that guy deserved it anyway. But anyway, back to why I’m here. How are you feeling?”

“Like I got hit by a truck,” Andre sighs as he picks up another piece of bacon.

“Ah, yes. That’s how it was like when I first had my heat. But you get used to it and it gets better,” Bellemare smiles at him. Andre doesn’t understand why he’s so calm about all of this. Andre is still in freak out mode. 

“It’s just..weird that I’m suddenly an omega, you know? I’m so used to being a beta and now, I can suddenly smell all these..scents I’ve never smelled before. Plus.. all the other omega things,” Andre mumbles the last one and stuffs his face with buttered wheat toast.

“Oh, yeah. Wait until you have your first knot,” Bellemare sighs dreamily and Andre almost spits out his toast. “Well, real knot, not that,” he gestures to the pink toy poking from underneath the blankets on the bed and gives Andre a teasing smile.

“I don’t. I don’t _ even _ wanna think about that right now!” Andre says indignantly. “I want to take this with baby steps, alright?”

“Don’t be a prude! You of all people!” 

“What’s _ that _ supposed to mean??”

“I’ve heard stories about you and your past team! Plus, I’ve seen you looking at Nate like he hung the moon. You’re easy to read, Burky,” he teases.

Andre sputters and tries to come up with a witful comeback but fails, his face flaming red. Bellemare rolls his eyes at him and holds his hands up in a placating gesture.

“Anyways, I’m glad you’re okay and congratulations on your presentation! Didn’t think you’d be one of those late bloomers! The bus will leave in an hour, by the way,” Bellemare says and rubs Andre’s head, messing up his hair even more, before trailing out the door.

Andre just buries his face to his hands. He can’t believe any of this and finishes up his breakfast so he can start packing up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [ my tumblr, feel free to leave prompts or say hi ](https://buwakinnon.tumblr.com/)


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> where the boys are pining and staying oblivious

“Okay, you can do this. You can do this,” Andre chants to himself, still in his car in the parking lot of the Avs’ practice rink. He’s nervous.

He hasn’t really talked to anyone but Bellemare since yesterday. He’s been avoiding his teammates, too embarrassed about what happened the other day. He’s gotten concerned text messages from them throughout yesterday, making Andre feel warm about the fact that they were worried about him despite being one of the new guys. He’s really glad that he’s fitting in with the Avalanche so easily. 

“Here we go,” he breathes out as he gets out of his car and slowly walks inside, shivering a little as he’s hit by the cold winter breeze.

Just act normal, he tells himself as he enters the locker room, suddenly hit by the mixture of different pheromones and a sight of half of the team in varying shades of undress. So, this is what Bellemare said when he texted him to put Vicks under his nose to help him mask pheromones. But of course, he thought it was a ridiculous idea and didn’t follow through. He starts breathing through his mouth to avoid the overwhelming scent. 

“H-hey guys,” he gives everyone a forced smile and sweeps his gaze around the locker room and almost chokes at the sight of a shirtless Nate changing into his practice jersey. 

“Hey Burky! Welcome back,” he hears someone say, ripping his thoughts away from following the lines on Nate’s abs down to the V of his hips. He prays silently to the hockey gods, thanking them for gifting the world of Nathan Mackinnon. His teammates gives him several pats on the shoulder and various greetings as he makes his way to his spot, next to Mikko who is currently tying his skates. 

“You okay?” Mikko asks him, concern written on his face. “We were worried.”

“Yeah. Yeah, I’m okay,” Andre breathes out. He takes a deep breath through his nose and he instantly regrets it. He’s surrounded by intoxicating smells; most likely due to the amount of unbonded alphas they have on the team and it makes him sneeze, his olfactory system overwhelmed. He tries to give Mikko a small smile.

“Ugh, gross, Burky!” Mikko says in disgust, nudging Andre with a dimpled smile. 

“Oh, shut up,” Andre retorts with a roll of his eyes, nudging Mikko back harder, causing the latter to laugh.

Andre hears someone clears his throat, causing him to look away from Mikko and towards Nate. Nate is looking at them pointedly, looking annoyed, and Andre notices that he’s sporting a black eye on his right. It makes him look good. In fact, _ too _ good. 

“No flirting in the locker room,” he hears Nate mutters, he looks at Mikko then at Andre. 

Mikko snorts beside him, “You think that’s flirting? _ Bro, c’mon,_” he says while rolling his eyes and gets up from his seat. He playfully messes with Nate’s hair and Andre watches him mumble something to Nate that makes him blush and laughs all the way out of the locker room towards the rink. 

“I wasn’t-” Andre splutters but his vision is obscured by Gabe, who is suddenly in front of him. He claps Andre on the back and says, “Glad you’re back with us!” Andre notes how his smell is subdued and concludes that maybe that’s how unbonded Alphas smells like. “Good to hear you’re fine. We were debating on checking up on you. Nate especially but, Bellemare said that it wasn’t a good idea,” Gabe says and dodges a tape ball that Nate threw at him. 

\--

He’s on his way to the ice to practice when the team doctor, Dr. Himawari, stops him. “Andre!,” he calls out. “I need to talk to you privately about recent matters.”

Andre looks up at the ceiling, mentally preparing himself for another ‘birds and the bees’ talk, as Bellemare likes to call it.

Dr. Himawari leads him to the physical examination room and gestures Andre to sit on one of the chairs. Andre watches the doctor walk around the desk and sits on the opposite side. “So how was your first few days as an omega?” he starts casually.

“I don’t really wanna talk about this,” Andre whines, face getting flustered. 

“Okay, well, it’s best to let me know, so we can establish a pattern and know what kind of suppressants I can prescribe you with. Also to find anything that’s not the norm so that we can fix it,” he informs.

“Plus, you presented at the age of 24, 8 years after what’s considered the usual presentation age,” he adds.

Andre chews on his lower lip thoughtfully. “It was weird, I guess. Suddenly smelling all these different types of smells that I’m not used to, it’s...” He worries that it will affect his hockey and has a mini freakout. He’s supposed to be on a run to break all his career records with the Avalanche and he’s anxious that this might ruin everything. 

“Overpowering?” The doctor suggests and Andre nods.

“Will it affect my hockey, though?” He shifts in his seat, worry written all over his face.

“It might,” the doctor says slowly. “But, I can prescribe you suppressants that will dampen smells. The heightened sense of smell is normal after presenting. I’m sure that in time, it wouldn’t seem so overwhelming as you get used to it.”

“Okay, that makes me feel better.” Andre starts, “These suppressants...will they also help with,” he clears his throat, “...heats?”

“Yes, they will. It won’t suppress them completely, but they will shorten it from the usual three days to only one.”

Andre chokes out, “_ Three days?_” Three days of what he experienced the other night is normal? He immediately misses being a beta, when he didn’t have to worry about any of this shit. Those were the good times. He remembers that his heat only lasted for one night and tells the doctor this.

The doctor hums thoughtfully, tapping a pen against his chin. “Yeah, that’s unusual since I didn’t give you a big enough dose of the emergency suppressant. It was only supposed to pause it. It also might be suppressant sensitivity.” He adjusts his glasses. 

“Oh, okay.”

“There’s also a huge chance that you’re going through irregularity. Your body might be making up for the 8 years you didn’t have any heats.”

That’s not comforting, Andre thinks.

\--

Andre enters the practice rink after the talk with the doctor, face still a little bit hot after the doctor hands him two pill bottles - his newly prescribed suppressants and a bottle of contraceptives, to Andre’s dismay. Take them at the same time everyday, the doctor had told him.

He’s suddenly hugged by someone shorter than him with a head full of curls - it’s Tyson and he’s beaming up at Andre, arms still squeezing him. “Welcome to the club!” 

Andre can’t help but to hug him back, he’s always known to be weak for physical attention. “There’s a club for omegas?” He furrowed his eyebrows, last time he knew, there’s only two omegas in the roster - Bellemare and Tyson. And now, him. Right.

“Nope! But I’m so glad I’m not alone anymore. Do you know how much it _ sucks _ to be the only unbonded omega here after Tybear left? Plus Bellemare isn’t as fun, he’s always busy with his family.”  
“Hey, I heard that!” Bellemare yells out from the other side of the rink, skating around and shooting the puck at the empty net.

“I don’t-” Andre starts and Tyson lets go of Andre and pats his ass with his hockey stick. 

“We should celebrate. You should come to my apartment and hang out afterwards. I’m sure you have plenty of questions. I heard about Belley going Dad Mode on you, but it might be easier if you talk to someone about this with someone around your age, eh?” He throws a wink at him.

“Hey, I’m not that old!” Bellemare says indignantly and sprays snow at Tyson after an abrupt stop on purpose. Tyson squawks and starts to chase Bellemare.

Tyson is right. Andre hasn’t really talked to anyone about this around his age. He hasn’t even told his parents or any of his sisters about this whole situation. It might be a good idea. A whistle is blown, interrupting his thoughts and sees the coach enter the practice rink.

“There’s new lines for today,” Bednar announces.

\--

Watching Nathan Mackinnon skate, can pretty much be summarized as a religious experience and Andre isn’t even remotely religious.

He skates with extraordinary speed and skates like he owns the ice. Andre will never get tired of watching him skate. He sighs as he takes another sip of water, thinking about Nate’s muscular thighs and his powerful strides on the ice. 

“_ You might take another sip because you’re looking extra thirsty,_” Gabe says to him in Swedish as he skates next to him, looking smug. 

_“I’m just admiring him skate!“ _ Andre sputters back in Swedish, face turning red. _“Everyone does it!”_ Andre adds lamely and tries to think of a wittier comeback than that but comes up short.

Gabe rolls his eyes at him._“Everyone has seen those instagram posts of you two. The way you both look at each other with heart eyes,”_ he teases. 

_ “We’re..we’re friends. Just friends, okay? Stop looking into it,” _ Andre hisses. “You’re making it weird.” Gabe raises an eyebrow at that.

_“The two of you have been going around each other for months,”_ Gabe points out.

Nate skates up them and removes his helmet, hair wet with sweat and sticking to his skin. “Hey, can I have some?” Nate asks nodding to the bottle Andre has in his hands. Andre nods and Nate grabs it, taking a drink. He watches Nate’s throat bobs as he swallows. Andre suppresses a whimper at the sight. It’s like a fucking water bottle commercial. 

“Thanks,” Nate says in a breathless voice and gives Andre a small smile. Andre stares at his mouth.

Gabe clears his throat, causing Andre to snap out of it. “N-no problem,” Andre says weakly. _ Get it together _, he screams to himself.

_ “Like I said, heart eyes,” _ Gabe says in a teasing voice as he exits the ice. Andre flips the bird at him. Gabe responds with putting his hand on his own chest dramatically, fake hurt. “Flipping your fellow Swede off?” He shakes his head.

Nate chuckles. “What’s that about?” He wipes the excess water off his chin. Andre catches a glimpse of a sweatdrop trailing down Nate’s neck. He wants to lick it off of him.

“Nothing!” Andre says and adds, “He’s just being annoying.” Nate nods knowingly. 

“I-” Nate starts.

“Can-” Andre says at the same time.

They look at each other and burst into laughter. “Okay, you first,” Nate says with a grin, leaning onto the rink board.

Andre bites his lip. “Can I see your eye? It looks--” _ hot _ “it looks like it hurt.” Nate nods and Andre removes his gloves and sets them on top of the rink board. He steps closer to Nate and gently places a finger around the edges of the bruise. Nate winces instinctively and Andre drops his hand. 

“Sorry!”

“No, no, it’s okay,” Nate says. “You should see the other guy,” he adds smugly. Andre rolls his eyes. 

Andre is still close enough that he can see the little specks of dark blue in Nate’s eyes. He’s also close enough that when he breathes in, he can smell cinnamon and a scent of crisp apples on top of the smell of fresh snow. It makes his mouth water and reminds him of eating a slice of warm apple pie his mom would bake during snowy days back in Malmö. He smells like home. 

“It’s my fault why you first got that, though. If it weren’t for me-”

“Don’t apologize for that,” Nate cuts in. “That- that, _ guy _ shouldn’t have done that in the first place,” Nate spits out and stands up straight, gripping the water bottle hard enought that water starts to dribble out and onto the ice.

“Thanks,” is all Andre can say. He doesn’t really know how to respond to that, but the thought of Nate having his back makes him feel warm and soft inside. 

\--

Andre decides to follow up on Tyson’s offer and drives to his apartment. He rings the doorbell holding a bag of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream. 

“It’s open!” Tyson’s muffled yell can be heard through the door. Andre walks in. Tyson is cutting up pieces of cheese and placing them on a wooden board along with crackers and bruschetta. Andre places the pint of ice cream in the freezer and sits on the other side of the counter, watching Tyson cut up cheese. 

“You sure that’s in our nutrition plan?” Andre asks jokingly, reaching over and grabbing a bruschetta. 

“Oh, shut up. You’re the one who brought the ice cream,” Tyson says as he finishes up placing the remainder of the cheese onto the cheeseboard. 

“Just because I brought it, doesn’t mean you have to eat it,” Andre retorts.

“No, you brought it to my home. We’re definitely sharing,” Tyson points a knife at Andre before putting it in the dishwasher. “Anyway, out of curiosity, how did you suddenly present as an omega? I’ve honestly never heard much about late presentations until I googled about it after your thing.”

Andre shrugs. “Dr. Himawari said that it’s probably because of the high stress environment when I was growing up? And he also said that being surrounded by a lot of unbonded alphas, might’ve triggered it also.” He reaches for a piece of cheese and chews on it thoughtfully. “The Caps were full of bonded alphas and omegas, so maybe that’s why I just presented now?” he shrugs, he’s still not entirely sure why.

Tyson hums thoughtfully. “I read that sometimes, late presentations can be triggered by highly compatible alphas.” Tyson waggles his eyebrows at him.

Andre flushes, his thoughts immediately running highlight reels of Nate. “There’s _ no one, _” he sputters lamely and shifts in his seat. 

“You drool over Nate like, every day you’re together,” Tyson points out, popping a cheese square into his mouth. “And the other way around,” he mumbles.

“I don’t drool over anyone! Did Gabe tell you about this? I swear, I’m gonna cut his hair one of these days when he’s not looking,” Andre stands up from his seat and grabs the ice cream in the freezer. 

Tyson’s eyebrows shot up. “Oh, you told Gabe you’re into Nate, eh?” He flashes a Cheshire grin at Andre, who is currently looking for the spoons. “Top drawer, on your right.”

Andre’s face is flaming red as he opens the pint of ice cream and stuffs his face with a big bite of Cherry Garcia. If his mouth is full, he can’t talk and give anymore information about his love life or lack thereof. Everyone seems to know about his thing for Nate, and he’s annoyed at himself. Is he too obvious about it?

“Oh, real mature,” Tyson says as he watches melted ice cream run down from the corners of Andre’s mouth like a five year old. “Okay, don’t actually drool all over my kitchen. That’s gross, dude.”

Andre tries to swallow down the glob of ice cream down while wiping his mouth with a paper towel. This wasn’t a great idea to begin with - just like most of all the ideas he comes up with, come to think of it. He scrunches his face as a stinging sensation shoots up to his head. “Ahh, brain freeze,” he moans.

“You deserved it.” Andre glares at Tyson.

“Okay, fine. Don’t tell anyone, okay? I like.. I like Nate. Like, a lot,” he mumbles after he recovered from the brain freeze.

Tyson looks like the cat who got the cream. “Hold on, let me get the wine and you can talk all about it, alright?”

Andre thinks it’s gonna be a long night.

\--

It’s 9 at night when Andre’s Uber takes him home. He’s not that drunk from the bottle of wine he shared with Tyson, but he’s a little tipsy and he doesn’t trust himself enough to drive safely on his own. He figures he can always pick his car up from Tyson’s apartment the next day since its near the practice rink. 

He plops down face first to his bed, kicking his shoes off. He has a bloated feeling from the wine and from all the junk food he’s eaten with Tyson. He also feels warm and giddy. He bites his lip and sits up to grab his laptop from his nightstand. 

He’s really, really curious about the fight. Tyson has mentioned it earlier and suggested Andre to look it up. So he goes into youtube and types in ‘Nathan Mackinnon fight’, and clicks on the first video.

The video starts with Nate dropping his gloves and taking a hold of the jersey of the Wild player who jumped Andre. And throws several punches at him. Nate’s face is red in fury, nostrils flaring and connects a fist onto the guy’s face. Andre has his eyes trained on Nate, he looks almost _ feral _ and it sends shivers down Andre’s spine. Andre gulps and feels himself hardening in his sweatpants.

Nate gets a fist to his face and that seems to rile him up even more. He gets his opponent onto the ice and lands more punches before the linesmen separates them. 

The camera zooms into the guy Nate fought walk off the ice with a bloodied nose and a cut on his lip. When the camera pans to follow Nate off the ice, Andre can’t help but to whimper at the sight of Nate looking smug and satisfied as he walks. Andre lets out a shuddery breath.

Andre squeezes his thighs together as he feels a gush of slickness. He plays the video again and takes a hold of his cock, using his own slick to lubricate and starts stroking fast and hard. Thinking about Nate and how far he went just to defend Andre’s honor. He whimpers and wishes Nate was here with him, fucking into him hard and fast and growling against his ear how good he is for him.

He reaches with his other hand to slip a finger in and comes all over his hand and stomach, with a broken cry of Nate’s name. 

Andre lets out a shuddery breath, suddenly overcome with guilt of jerking off over a teammate’s fighting video. He buries his face onto his pillow in shame as he tries to catch his breath.

He eventually closes his laptop and drifts off to sleep. 

\--

The following morning, Andre decides that he’s having a crisis. He can’t believe he jerked off to Nate last night. He’s so fucking embarrassed at the thought and thinks how he’ll never be able to look at him in the eye.

He calls Tom Wilson.

“I’m having a crisis!!” Andre all but yells into the phone when Tom finally picks up. He plops down on his bed. He can hear Tom wince from the other end.

“Jesus Christ, Burky, don’t scream into my ears!”

“Sorry,” Andre rolls his eyes. He doesn’t sound very apologetic. 

“What crisis are you having?” Tom asks patiently but Andre can practically see him rolling his eyes. 

Andre huffs. “Don’t laugh,” he warns.

“I won’t,” he replies. 

“Pinky swear?” 

“Oh my god, just fucking tell me, Burk.”

“Okay, soooo,” Andre draws out.

“I’m hanging up.”

“I-have-a-crush-on-Nathan-Mackinnon!” He blurts out and starts babbling about his Nate™ situation. He’s known Tom long enough that he’s comfortable enough to talk about this. There’s a moment of silence on the other end when he finally finishes his tirade of how much he likes Nate before he hears laughter. “It’s not fucking funny,” he hisses out.

“Are you calling me for _ dating _ advice?” Tom says after the laughter died down. “Just ask him out, bro.”

“He’s my teammate! I can’t just do that,” Andre says. “I don’t wanna mess this up! I just got here,” he adds solemnly. “Plus, I really like him, Willy. And I don’t want it to just be a casual thing, y’know?” he confesses. He hasn’t been in a serious relationship before. It was always casual flings with other people throughout his whole career. He hardly has time for serious relationships when he’s so busy with hockey.

“Oh, so you like _ like _ him,” Tom says.

“Yes! And I hate it. I jerked off to his fighting video last night,” he confesses and rubs a free hand on his forehead. He hears spluttering from the other end and what sounded like water spraying.

“It’s way _ too _ early for this conversation.”

“It’s like lunch time there.”

“Still. When did this start anyway?” Tom asks.

“Um, well, we started hanging out a lot when I first moved to Denver,” Andre explains. He gushes about how Nate has shown him around the city, top places to eat and go to, and also tells Tom how he’s been helping him improve his hockey and giving him advice. 

“He sounds like an awesome guy, Burk. Just ask him out.” Andre huffs at that. “You gotta shoot your shot until someone else does and steals him away from you, ” Tom adds teasingly.

Andre bristles at the thought of Nate being with someone else. “Don’t say that! You’re gonna jinx it and I’ll be forever alone!” he cries out dramatically. “It’s harder now after I presented as a fucking omega! He’s all I think about.”

“Okay first off, stop screaming into the phone and secondly, what? I think I missed something. I thought you were a beta?”

“Well, not anymore!” Andre explains his whole situation and the fact that he presented in the middle of the game the other day. He also tells Tom how Nate reacted and got in a fight afterwards. “It was so _ hot _ Tom, you should’ve seen it. Do you wanna see it? I’ll link you, I have it bookmarked.” He doesn’t add the real reason why he has it bookmarked.

“Shit, Burky. And no, I don’t want your wank fodder,” Tom says. “Well doesn’t this makes things easier then? Ask him to help you with your next heat.” 

Andre flushes at that and tries not to think about begging for Nate to knot him. 

“How does that make it easier??” Tom is the worst friend, Andre thinks. Because a part of him wants to consider the idea and the other half of him thinks it’s a bad one. He’s leaning more into the first one.

“Alphas and omegas do it all the time! Plus it sounds like he’s into you if he reacted like that when you got jumped,” Tom explains. Andre rolls his eyes in disbelief. 

“Yeah, whatever.”

“Go big or go home, Burky. C’mon, I think you’re making this complicated as it is,” Tom says and he’s right, but Andre doesn’t want to admit it.

Andre sighs. “Okay, fine. I’ll do...something. Thanks for talking to me even though you give shitty advice,” he says and hears Tom splutter on the other end. He sniggers and hangs up.

He drops his phone onto his stomach and stares at the ceiling, thinking of something he can do to try and win over Nate.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for the kudos and comments, I'm still trying to figure out writing fics so bear with me!
> 
> [ my tumblr, feel free to leave prompts or say hi ](https://buwakinnon.tumblr.com/)


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello hello! So sorry for the long hiatus of this fic, everything happened suddenly and I was working overtime a lot due to the pandemic, but I have semi-normal hours now and can work some more on this fic so cheers!

Literally an hour after Andre talked with Tom, his phone starts ringing with several text messages from his former teammates- more specifically from Backstrom, Vrana, and Djoos. Because of _ course _ Tom would run off and tell the immediately. The fucking traitor. He scrolls through the supportive messages Djoos and Backstrom sent him and replies with a lot of heart emojis and his thanks. He ignores Vrana’s spam messages of “get that 🍆!! get that 🍆!!”. Despite how annoying and overbearing they sometimes get, he misses all of them terribly. 

He sighs and sits up, looking towards his end table to grab his pills and the glass of water he's been leaving on it night. He has a bright neon pink sticky note on the pill bottles with a note that says, “DO NOT FORGET!” written in black block letters. 

His phone rings and he answers it at the second ring, seeing its Nate calling. “Hey, Nate." 

“Hey, I’m in the area, do you wanna ride together to the practice rink? I wanted to try the new smoothie place that just opened up nearby.”

Andre perks up and makes his way onto the bathroom to start getting ready and at least look presentable. “Yeah! That sounds good.”

“Okay, sweet. See you in 20,” Nate says and hangs up.

Andre manages to make himself look decent in under 20 minutes and starts his way downstairs to wait for Nate outside. He has an Avs beanie on and his normal practice gear which consists of an Avs shirt and some shorts with black active leggings underneath. 

Nate’s sleek black car pulls up and Andre climbs in. He’s greeted with Nate's muted scent and a large green smoothie that Nate pushes onto Andre’s hand. “I didn’t know what you would want so I just got you the most generic one.”

“Are you calling me basic?” Andre asks and takes a sip of his green smoothie. It’s pretty good, it has a hint of apple, mint, and it’s slightly sweet. 

“No! Of course not,” Nate sputters as he starts to drive, taking a sip of his own smoothie from time to time. 

“Good, because you’re the basic one,” Andre teases and shoots Nate a grin. “Thanks for breakfast, though.”

Andre supposes that the pills the doctor gave him is working given that he’s not overwhelmed with Nate’s scent. He takes a few trial sniffs. He turns to Nate and sees him giving him a weird look.

“Do I stink or something?”

“No! No, no, never!” Andre says, “It’s that… I guess the suppressants are working. Your scent is kinda muted unlike before, y’know?” He takes another sip.

Nate clears his throat. “Oh.. I see. Um.." He glances shyly at Andre," How did I normally smell like before?”

Andre hums, thinking while sipping in his smoothie. “I guess kinda like this smoothie. Appley and minty.” He doesn’t really want to fully describe how good Nate smells like to him. How Nate smells like home to him and how intoxicating it was to breathe every time. At Least with the suppressants he’s not ready to bend over for him every time he smells Nate. 

“Oh. Just ‘appley and minty’ huh?” Nate says. “That’s.. that’s a good thing, right?” He glanced nervously at Andre.

“Well, yeah! Who doesn’t like apples and mint?” Andre takes another sip. “While on this subject, how do _ I _ smell like?” He glances curiously at Nate.

Nate slightly flushes at the question, “Um, sweet. I guess. Like caramel, almost.” He shifts in his seat, eyes trained at the road.

“Like caramel?” Andre echoes. “Well, that’s kinda boring.”

“No! Well- Ah, nevermind” Nate backtracks and Andre peers at him curiously. “We’re almost there,” Nate grumbles, pink staining his cheeks and makes a turn.

\---

Practice went better this time. Because of the suppressants, Andre’s mind feels clearer and scents are easier to ignore. It’s almost like before when all of this hadn’t happened yet. He works on his stick handling and passing skills, doing several team drills until Bednar blows the whistle to indicate practice is over. 

They win the game that night. And the next one, and the next. It goes on and on and next thing he knows, they’re on a 6 game winning streak. Andre is collecting goals and assists like a madman. Despite all his improvement with the Avalanche, he still feels like he needs to do better and to work hard. So that's what tries to focus on besides dancing around each other with Nate. 

They won against the Bruins 4-1 that weekend. Most of the team members decided to go to the bar near the hotel they were staying at to celebrate, while some decided to rest for the night. 

Andre is wearing the tightest pants he had brought in with him, planning to get his dick wet for the night. They’re in the beginning of December and he hasn’t hooked up ever since The Incident happened. Thirsting over Nathan Mackinnon for months since he got into the club hasn’t worked out and frankly speaking, Andre is getting a little desperate. He's been feeling a little antsy lately and he couldn't pinpoint why. 

It’s a somewhat decent bar, generic music blaring and lights flashing. There’s a sea of bodies grinding into each other in the dance floor that piques his interest. They're all in the booth, drinking and riding the high of a 6 game win streak. Everyone is a couple of drinks in, even Andre. They're all having fun and making jokes, teasing each other and just having a good time.

Something catches Andre’s eyes, it was Nate's turn to buy them a round and off to fetch the drinks when he saw a lanky curly haired brunette talking to Nate at the bar, while Nate was waiting for the drinks to be made. They both look like they’re engaged in conversation, Nate smiling at the guy, who's a little shorter than him by an inch or two. “What the fuck,” Andre pouts into the remainder of his drink, clenches his fist tight as he watches the shorter guy puts a hand on Nate’s bicep as Nate laughs at something lame and stupid the guy probably said.

Someone in their booth whistles. “Looks like Nate is fixing to get some,” EJ leers and gestures his beer bottle towards where Nate and the brunette are at. Gabe nudges EJ hard to shut him up, peering curiously at Andre then back where Nate is.

"Probably just an angry Bruins fan," Gabe says. "Nate did get 3 points tonight."

“Or maybe he needs help with the drinks,” Andre announces and finishes his beer, wiping the excess off the side of his mouth with the back of his hand. He promptly stands up and works his way towards Nate.

The stranger was whispering something to Nate, which caused Nate to blush and was about to reply when Andre slid in between them. “Hey, need help carrying the drinks?” He grits out and forced a smile. 

“Hey-” the other guy starts and Andre looks over beside him, towering over the stranger. 

“It’s okay, I’ll help him,” Andre adds with a charming smile, still irritated. He looks the guy up and down and wonders what Nate sees in him. He makes a little shoo-ing gesture, obscured from Nate’s view and turns his attention to Nate again. 

Nate blinks at him a couple of times and nods, “Um, yeah, of course. Let’s go back then.” He peers from Andre’s shoulder and gives the other guy a short wave. “Nice to meet you?” 

The other guy rolls his eyes, “Whatever, you’re not that hot anyway.” He says irritably before walking off.

“Wow, what an asshole,” Andre says, grabbing one of the trays with their drinks. “Who was that anyway? Also, don’t listen to him. He’s a liar.”

Nate arches a brow at him. “You think I’m hot?” 

Andre decides to own up to what he said, mostly because his confidence is boosted by a few drinks. “Maybe so,” he says and makes his way back to their booth, Nate trailing behind him.

“Did you just get cock blocked, Nate?” EJ teases when Nate and Andre comes back to the table with their drinks.

“I didn’t block anything!,” Andre says defensively. “The guy was an asshole. He insulted Nate!” He takes a seat next to Gabe and grabs a fresh bottle of beer. “Nate can totally do better.”

Gabe puts an arm around Andre and arches an eyebrow at Nate. “You hear that? You can do better, Nate.” Gabe laughs as he dodges a crumpled tissue that Nate threw at him, hitting EJ instead.

"Hey! Not cool," EJ says and throws back the crumpled tissue, missing Gabe entirely.

“If only,” Nate mumbles out and takes a swig of his beer.

Andre thinks he’s on his 5th bottle of beer when he starts clinging on to his teammates like an octopus, dancing on the dance floor. Some team members have already left like Gabe, EJ, and Bellemare. He was about to start grinding on the random guy h's been eyeing on the dance floor, giddy from all the alcohol when he feels someone grab his wrist. He turns around and sees it’s Nate, who looks pretty sober. “What?”

“I think it’s time to go back to the hotel,” Nate says flatly.

Andre puts his arms around Nate’s neck, unabashedly. “Are you offering?” Andre loves the way Nate blushes and wonders how far down does it go. He follows the line of his neck when Nate takes a gulp. 

“No, you’re drunk, Burky. C’mon, let’s go,” Nate says and leads Andre out the bar, some of his team members drunkenly waiting for an Uber.

\---

They reach the hotel safely, Andre an arm around Nate since he can barely walk straight. JT and Tyson already took off, doing god knows what and Nate is trying to walk Andre to his hotel room. He stops in front of Andre’s room. “Room key?”

“Back pocket,” Andre mumbles and buries his face onto the expanse of Nate’s neck. “Get it for me. You smell so good,” he states as he breathes in Nate’s scent. 

“A-ah, Burky, not now,” Nate coughs out, face unbelievably red and awkwardly tries to slip his hand onto Andre’s back pocket to grab the room card. He silently prays to any god that might be listening to grant him patience at this very moment. “G-got it,” he grits out.

“You can do more, you know,” Andre adds with a wink and sways into his room, kicking his shoes out and plopping onto the bed. Nate dutifully follows, eyes trained on Andre’s backside, the tight jeans really do wonders on his ass.

“Maybe later,” Nate mumbles. “When you’re not drunk.” He grabs a glass from the kitchen and fills it up with water before stopping next to Andre’s bed. “You’ll thank me later,” he adds as he pushes the glass of water to Andre’s hand. “Drink up.”

Andre gulps the water down, maintaining eye contact with Nate the whole way through and places the glass on the end table. He swipes a tongue to catch the rivulet of water that managed to escape from the side of his mouth and looks up at Nate through his eyelashes.

“Oookay,” Nate breathes out. “I think it’s time for me to get back to my room. “ He adjusts the collar of his shirt. “Goodnight, Burk.”

Andre pouts, face pink from the alcohol, “Am I that revolting? I won’t do anything, I promise. But at least stay for a bit?” He gives Nate one of his classic puppy dog eyes that usually always got him whatever he wanted back when he was still a Capitals player. “We can watch a movie.”

“No, never and _fine_,” Nate takes a seat on the side of the bed, doesn’t have the heart to say no to a face like that. He glances at the clock, it just turned 12 AM. “Just one, okay?” 

Andre gives him a grin and paws for the remote and turns on the TV and tries to find a random movie to watch. They both don’t get very far in the movie before they doze off, tired from the day’s events.

\---  
Andre feels warm and good. He snuggles closer towards the heat and takes a deep breath, sighing contently at the scent of apples. “Mhmm.” He also feels something hard poking on his backside and slightly grinds on it. He feels a gush of slick soaking through his boxers and he opens his eyes and slowly turns his head, seeing Nate’s face just centimetres away from his. Startled, he pushes off of Nate’s hold on him and ends up on the floor, ass first. “Ow,” he whines rubbing at his backside. 

Nate wakes up from the loss of heat and pressure on his front side and blinks his eyes open. There’s a sweet smell permeating in the air of the room, causing his dick to twitch in interest. He sighs and breathes in, still half asleep. “One m’re min,” he mumbles out, voice scratchy from sleep and closes his eyes again.

Andre is still on the floor, rubbing on his backside. There’s a scent of Alpha pheromones and he feels slightly drunk with it. “Nate?” he calls out, trying to ignore the way he is feeling right now. “Nate, wake up.”

Nate blearily opens his eyes back again and sits up when he remembers the events of last night and looks down on the floor, where Andre is at. “Oh,” he says weakly. "Hi?"

“I think.. I think my heat is starting,” Andre says, using all his will not to jump Nate there and then. 

"Oh, yeah. That's. Cool. Yeah, I'll leave," Nate says awkwardly but stays rooted in his spot on the bed.

Andre bites his lip. “Unless..you want to.. Help? Maybe?” he adds nervously. 

Nate takes a gulp. "You want me to help?" he echoes.

Andre stares at him, "Yes." 

“Maybe it's not a good idea? I don't think you’re in the right mindset right now,” Nate finishes.

Andre groans. “I’m literally here begging for your dick,” he whines. “I’m consenting like, 1000%, Nate.” 

“Ah,” Nate says lamely. “Okay. Cool. That’s cool,” he nods. “How about this, we can.. We can do this thing,” he gestures in between them with his finger. “When you’re like, not about to have a heat? Maybe?”

Andre rolls his eyes at him dramatically. “Fine,” he grits out. “My mind is pretty clear about choking on your dick, but _ whatever _, be such a gentleman and _die _of blue balls,” he sighs.

Nate taps his fingers against the bed, contemplating on what his choices are right now. Die of blue balls like what Andre said or get laid. “I mean.. If you’re sure sure?” Nate looks down and pulls a stray thread from the bed sheets. “I’ll.. I’ll help you. If it’s okay with you. Like, there’s no pressure,” he adds awkwardly, blushing furiously. “Only if you’re sure. 100% sure.”

"Really?" Andre perks up and climbs on the bed, ignoring how he produced more slick just hearing Nate suggest that he’d help Andre. He’s been waiting for this moment ever since he met Nate. He takes a hold of Nate’s face and looks at him straight in the eye. “I’m sure about this, Nate. I want you,” he says with all the confidence he could muster. He looks down at Nate's lips, leaning in to kiss Nate deeply. "Is that sure enough for you?"

Nate kisses back and takes Andre by the hips to seat him on his lap, sliding his hands on the expanse of Andre’s thighs. “Been waiting for this for so long,” he mutters once they pull away.

“Yeah? I was too,” Andre says as he takes his shirt off, throwing it to the floor and leans down to take Nate’s lips again, grinding down. "Since the first time I met you."

"Mhmm, good." Nate trails his hands up to Andre's side as they get entangled into each other. Andre feels his slick soak through his clothing. He grinds his hip onto Nate. "Touch me, Nate."

"Nate unbutton Andre’s pants, pushing it far enough that he can pull out his dick. Nate looks down and wraps his hand around his member, “You're so wet.”

Andre bites his lower lip to keep from moaning out loud, “W-wait, let me get everything off first.” Nate takes his hand away and watches Andre slide his pants and then his boxers off, throwing them to the ground along with his forgotten shirt. 

“Fuck, you smell so good,” Nate says drunkenly, pulling Andre back onto his lap and capturing his lips with his own.

“You’re wearing too many clothes,” Andre says in between kisses, an exploratory hand inside Nate’s shirt, feeling the tight muscles underneath. Andre slides his hand down to give Nate's bulge a slight squeeze. Nate groans and flips their position, crowding and pinning Andre towards the head of the bed. Andre instinctively wraps his legs around Nate’s waist, his slick soaking through Nate’s pants. He moans at the feel of denim against his ass and grinds down harder. “Please,” he begs, emphasizing his need by grinding again, causing Nate to grunt. 

“Okay, okay, patience,” Nate says, sitting up and making a show of taking his shirt off. Andre groans at the sight.

“Fuck me,” Andre breathes out.

Nate smirks and leans down to give Andre a quick peck on the cheek, “Later. When we’re back at home,” he murmurs.

“Fine, whatever, just- please, do something,” Andre says desperately, wrapping his arms around Nate and pulling him closer, feeling a little giddy at Nate saying ‘home’. He mouths at Nate’s neck, vision hazy from his pre-heat state. His olfactory is overwhelmed with Nate's pheromones and grinds down when he feels Nate’s hand travel downwards to thumb lazily at his hole. “Yes, yes, yes,” he babbles.

Nate applies pressure against Andre’s, rubbing the outside and smearing his slick. He maintains eye contact with Andre before putting his thumb to his mouth to taste Andre. Andre whimpers. “Turn over,” he says and sits up to give Andre space. 

“Jesus, Nate,” Andre huffs out, turning onto his hands and knees, wiggling his ass invitingly at Nate. “C’mon, I want to feel your knot,” he says over his shoulder.

“I want to feel you too,” Nate says with a playful bite on Andre’s ass. “I don’t have a condom, though,” he added apologetically, causing Andre to groan. “But we can do this for now.” He unbuttons his pants and pushes it along with his boxers down just enough to free his cock, lining it on the juncture of Andre’s cheeks, slicking his cock with Andre’s mess. He groans out loud and starts thrusting. "You can ride my knot when we're back in Denver," he adds in between thrusts.

“Oh my god,” Andre says and arches his back to grind down along with Nate’s thrusts. He can feel Nate throbbing against his sensitive skin. “Fuck me, Nate,” he pleads and grasps at the headboard while the other hand trails down to wrap around his dick. He fists himself along. 

Andre produces more slick along the way and Nate uses this opportunity to thrust harder and faster, their moans and grunts echoing through the hotel room. He puts both of his hands on Andre’s ass and spreads him open, watching Andre’s hole gush out slick in time with his thrusts and groans at the sight. “Fuck, I want to eat you out.” Andre whimpers at that and comes all over his hand and on the sheets. 

Nate speeds up his thrusts, Andre’s knees giving out and slumps all over the bed, weak from his orgasm and grasps the sheets tightly as Nate keeps on going. He’s still achingly hard, completely into his heat now. Nate finishes off with a grunt, splattering his come on Andre’s back. Andre makes a pleased hum, the thought of Nate marking him is satisfying. 

“’Mm’still hard,” Andre whines and Nate kisses the back of his head.

“I know, baby.” Nate sits up and gently repositions Andre, putting a pillow under him. He bends down and licks at the stripe of come that pooled on Andre’s back, near the base of his ass. 

“Ah! Fuck,” Andre says. He just wants to come so badly, his heat addled mind clouding his ability to form sentences and coherent words. “Please,” he begs.

Nate continues on licking his own come off of Andre’s back before licking in, causing Andre to grip the sheets tightly. He lets out a string of curses when Nate starts swirling his tongue in him, filling the room with wet noises and Andre's sounds of pleasure.

\---

Andre’s heat breaks the next day, early morning at 3 AM. It was driving him crazy, not being able to feel Nate inside him and having to wait till they get back to Denver. Nate has eaten him multiple times throughout yesterday and had four of his fingers deep inside him for the majority of the day. They only stopped to eat granola bars Andre had packed in his suitcase and to replenish fluids. His mind has cleared up a bit and all he feels is how tired and sore he is. He feels Nate plants a kiss on his shoulder, snuggling closer to him. They both eventually drift off to sleep. 

They both wake up when Nate’s alarm goes off 5 hours later at 8 AM, tangled in each other's arms. The room still smells of heat sex and heavy with their pheromones. Andre stretches lazily like a cat before blinking his eyes open. Nate is watching him with a small smile on his face. “Hey there,” Nate greets. 

“Hey,” Andre echoes with a smile. He peers from over Nate’s shoulder to look at the time. “Ugh, we fly back in 3 hours,” he sighs, wanting to get some more sleep. He remembers what Nate said yesterday. “Oh, we’re going back,” he says slyly, waggling his eyebrows at Nate.

Nate rolls his eyes. “Oh my god, you're insatiable,” he says laughing and stands up. "My dick is close to falling off," he says as he makes his way to the bathroom. 

“Wait! I want to shower too,” Andre says and kicks the sheets off, trailing after him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [ my tumblr, feel free to leave prompts or say hi ](https://buwakinnon.tumblr.com/)


	4. Chapter 4

Nate and Andre decide that it might be too weird to sit together on the plane on their way back to Denver. So, they sat where they usually sat. Nate towards the front of the plane, watching videos of the recent road trip games, while Andre is sitting by Mikko. 

Mikko is a pretty chill guy, and usually when Andre sits by him during road trip games, they’re sharing a screen to watch a movie together or play a game together in Mikko’s Nintendo switch. It’s twenty minutes into the flight when Mikko says something in the middle of playing Fortnite that Andre can’t really hear, too busy listening nonstop to the Weeknd’s newly released songs. 

Andre pulls out an airpod, “Hm? Didja say something?” 

“I said you smell like Nate,” Mikko says matter of factly, eyes trained on the screen, buttons clicking as he builds a wooden mini-fort in the game.

Andre chokes on nothing, a blush forming on his cheeks. He panics. “Uh, no? I think you’re mistaken,” he laughs nervously. 

Mikko dies in the game and he sighs, putting the switch down to look at Andre. “You two were gone for like, a whole day yesterday,” he says. “Both of you weren’t answering the group chat either.” 

Andre coughs and takes a nervous sip of his water, looking around for help. The older teammates are across from them, playing cards and some of the rookies are catching up on Game of Thrones. He hasn’t looked at the group chat, he had no time to charge his phone. “Uh..we looked over videos of the game. Uh, he was helping me out how to improve,” he tries to say it convincingly, but it looks like Mikko is not buying any of it. 

“You both watched replays of the game for a whole day?” Mikko asks, raising an eyebrow.

“Well you know how Nate is,” Andre chuckles nervously. “He’s super anal about hockey.” He shrugs. “He told me to shoot more, as usual,” he adds.

Mikko nods and points at the hickey on Andre’s collarbone, peeking through the collar of his shirt. “Doesn’t explain that though,” Mikko says, smug.

Andre splutters, his brain shutting down. “Ah-- Umm, this is--, this--.” He anxiously pulls at his collar to cover the hickey peeking out.

Mikko shakes his head and gives Andre a dimpled grin, nudging him with his shoulder. “I’m just messing with you. You know that I don’t care, right? That no one minds here.”

Andre’s red faced, cursing himself for not hiding the marks Nate left all over him better. “Oh- Ah, thanks...” he mumbles, furiously blushing. “I had a surprise heat yesterday,” he admits. “So he helped me.”

It wasn’t uncommon in the NHL for unbonded alphas to help unbonded omegas in their team with their heats. It was encouraged, even, since it was easier to keep scandals and other PR nightmares from happening.

“Ah, so that’s why you were both MIA for a day,” Mikko says thoughtfully. “Plus, it’s good for Nate, y’know? He was really upset when Barrie left. All he did that week when he left was work out for like, a whole week, and not talk to anyone” Mikko sighs, recalling the first few hellish weeks after the trade.

Andre just nods and can’t help feeling a pang of jealousy. “Where they...you know, together?” 

Mikko shakes his head, “Oh no no, not like that. They’re best friends.” He lowers his voice, “It was Tyson and Gabe.” 

Andre raises his eyebrows in surprise and also feels a sense of relief. He can’t help but to feel hopeful at the revelation. “Oh, I see. That must be so hard for Gabe too, then.”

Mikko nods and nudges Andre playfully again. “Don’t worry, Nate is still free for the taking,” he teases and Andre glowers at him, putting back his airpod and unpauses the music.

\--

Andre hears his apartment doorbell, hours after the team arrived back in Denver. Knowing it’s Nate behind the door, he turns off his TV and opens the door with a large smile. Nate holds out a bag for him to take. “I brought dinner,” he says as he steps into the apartment, leaning close to give Andre a kiss on the cheek.

Andre peeks into the bag, seeing a few tupperwares of what looked liked grilled chicken, sauteed vegetables, and sweet potatoes. “Did you make this? You didn’t need to, we could’ve just had something delivered.” He places the bag on the dinner table and starts unpacking them. 

Nate starts opening drawers to get some forks and steak knives then sits across from Andre. “Yeah, but it’s not in our diet plan,” he states as he starts digging in. 

Andre rolls his eyes. “You can have _ one _ cheat day.” He takes a bite of the chicken. “Hey this is good!” he exclaims and tries the sweet potatoes. He moans into his fork. 

“There’s no cheat days in hockey,” Nate says seriously. He preens at the praise. “I used my mom’s recipes.”

“Didn’t know you were such a cook,” Andre teases. “I should make you something too one of these days.” 

“Well, I kinda have to learn how to cook to follow our nutrition plans. Plus, I don’t trust ‘health food’ restaurants. It’s better to cook your own food.” 

“Hm, I guess that makes sense,” Andre says. He’s not that particular about his diet. 

\--

They’re making out on Andre's couch, a Netflix show playing on the TV that they gave up watching. Both of their shirts are off, Andre straddling Nate’s lap and grasping Nate’s bulge through his sweatpants. “I can’t wait to feel this in me,” he gasps out and leans in to lick into Nate’s mouth, rubbing his palm onto Nate’s bulge. 

“You’re so eager,” Nate notes and slides his hands to grab a hold onto Andre’s thighs. “Hold tight,” he warns before standing up from the couch while carrying Andre up. 

“That’s so fucking hot,” Andre breathes, tightening his thighs around Nate and throwing his arms around his neck. He can feel Nate’s dick poking his ass as Nate tries to find his way onto the hallway. “Keep going straight, yeah, that’s it,” he says when they got to the door at the end of the hallway. 

Nate kicks the door open then drops Andre onto the bed carefully, leaving playful bites on the expanse of Andre’s neck. Andre leans into it, moaning at every bite. His neck has never been this sensitive before, but ever since he presented as an omega, he’s been noticing how responsive he is whenever Nate gives his neck some attention.

Andre slides a tongue in, hands all over Nate’s hard chest, admiring the muscles underneath. Nate’s hand journeys down to the front of Andre’s sweatpants, untying the knot and sliding his pants completely off. Andre’s not wearing any underwear, thighs shining from his slick. “Fuck,” Nate breathes out, voice heavy with lust.

“I wanna blow you,” Andre says, sultry and repositions Nate over by wrapping his legs around him and using the strength of his thighs to flip them over. Andre then slips off the bed and situates himself into kneeling between Nate’s legs. He slides his hands up and down Nate’s thighs teasingly before they travel up to grasp at his bulge, squeezing a little. 

Nate bites his lip hard, fists clenching the bedsheets. “You’re such a tease,” he grits out. Andre just smiles up at him before leaning in to mouth at his clothed cock. He looks up at Nate through his eyelashes and makes a show of moaning as he continues on mouthing at his cock. A hand flies off to grip at Andre’s curls. “A-andre c’mon.”

Andre places a kiss on Nate’s bulge, the front of his sweatpants wet from Andre’s mouth. Andre frees Nate’s dick from the confines of his clothing and licks the base to the head, while maintaining eye contact with Nate. Nate groans at the sight.

Andre envelopes the head of the cock with his mouth and sucks greedily, lapping and fucking his mouth on Nate’s dick. He places his thumb on the base of Nate’s dick and applies pressure on his balls as he fits as much as he can in his mouth. Nate bucks his hips into the heat, causing Andre to moan around his dick. 

Nate pulls Andre’s hair a little bit, just enough that Andre pauses and looks up. His lips are slick with spit and swollen. “E-enough, You’re gonna make me come soon,” he says breathless as he kicks his sweatpants off from his ankle.

Andre gets back on the bed while Nate fishes a pack of condoms from the pockets of his pants. He waves them at Andre, who makes a pleased hum. “We’re using it all up,” he announces and Nate chokes on nothing. 

“We have a game tomorrow,” Nate says and places the pack of condoms beside Andre, before leaning in to kiss him deeply. He puts himself in between Andre’s legs and looks down at the sight, pressing a finger on his hole and slipping in easy.

“Fuck!” Andre shouts and grasps Nate’s shoulders. “I don’t break easy,” he says as Nate slips another finger, crooking them together. Andre whines. “Nate, please I don’t need prep,” he whines, he’s still loose from Nate’s fingers yesterday. 

“I want to hear you beg,” Nate states and leans to kiss Andre. “But I’ll be nice for now,” he adds then grabs a condom from beside and rips open a packet with his teeth. He leans on his heels and makes a show of rolling the condom on himself. 

Andre sucks a breath, eyes glazed and trained on Nate’s thick cock. Nate lines himself against Andre then thrusts in. Andre lets out a shaky moan and digs his fingers onto Nate’s shoulders. It’s so much different from the toys the doctor gave him a while back. It’s not his first time, it’s far from that, but it’s his first as an Omega and _ holy shit, _ he doesn’t remember it being _ this good_.

“Oh yeah?” Nate says smugly, Andre must’ve said that last part out loud. Nate begins to thrust, establishing a rhythm that makes Andre whimper at every move. 

Andre reaches to wrap a hand on his dick, but Nate bats it away and fucks into him harder and faster. Andre holds onto Nate as Nate hits that little bundle of nerves that makes Andre see stars. Nate notices this and makes it his mission to hit that spot again and again. 

The room is filled with their moans and grunts, skin slapping against skin and the occasional thud of the bed frame against the wall. Nate moves Andre’s legs over his shoulders to drive in deeper, Andre’s arms falling from his neck to grip the bed sheets. “Oh god,” he moans, “Right there, please, Nate,” he chants. He’s so close.

Nate thrusts a few more times until Andre sobs out Nate’s name, coming all over between their bodies. His vision goes white and lays there, gasping, totally spent as Nate chases his climax right after. Nate slumps over and peppers Andre with kisses, sweaty from sex. “Was it worth the wait?” he asks as he lowers Andre’s legs down.

“F-fuck,” is what Andre can only gasp at this time, totally rendered useless. Nate laughs endearingly.

“I’ll take that as a yes then,” he says and slowly slips out of Andre, tying the condom and throwing it on the floor, not bothered to look for the trash can.

He lays right beside Andre, yawning a little. He looks unsure for a moment. “Is it.. Is it okay if I stay the night over?” he asks, avoiding eye contact.

Andre stares at him.

“I mean, you don’t have to say yes. It’s okay if you don’t want me to sleep over--”

“Nate, stop,” Andre says and turns to completely face Nate. “Of _ course _ you can stay. You literally helped me with my heat thing and like, blew my mind with your dick. Of course you can stay the night.”

Nate’s cheeks tints red at Andre’s choice of words. “Oh, okay, cool..Thanks.” 

“Yeah, we can even do some post-coital cuddling, too,” Andre says and snuggles closer to Nate. Andre lives off of physical contact, and ever since he got into the Avalanche, he hasn’t been able to get as much physical contact as he was with his old team. He smiles into the warmth of Nate’s body heat and closes his eyes, drifting off to sleep as Nate follows.

\--

The next day, Andre wakes up at the smell of coffee and alone on the bed. He stretches his limbs and slowly opens his eyes, the space beside him is still warm. He kicks off the blanket and rubs on his eyes, he’s pleasantly sore and couldn’t help but to smile thinking about last night’s events. He leaves his bed and pulls up a pair of boxers from his dresser and makes his way to the kitchen.

Nate is shirtless in the kitchen, wearing the pair of sweatpants he came into last night. He’s making eggs with spinach, it looks like from where Andre is standing. There’s a fresh mug of coffee by the bar and Andre takes a seat, taking a sip of coffee that he just assumes might be his. “Oooh, you even made breakfast?” 

Nate startles and looks where Andre is sitting, “Mhmm, these were the only ones I found in your fridge that’s substantial enough.” He makes a small noise of displeasure. “Your fridge is kinda empty, Burk. All you have besides the eggs and the frozen spinach is a bag of frozen meatballs.” He fake gags. “You don’t know what they put in those meatballs.”

Andre rolls his eyes. “_ Fine, _ I’ll buy groceries after practice. I’ll make sure next time to get non-GMO, organic, free range meatballs.” 

Nate takes the bar stool beside him, holding two plates and places one in front of Andre along with a fork. “That’s the secret to good hockey.” Andre rolls his eyes at that and frowns down at the plate. 

“Where’s the yellow stuff?” Andre pokes his scrambled eggs with spinach, it looks like Nate only used the egg whites.

“Egg yolks raise your triglycerides,” Nate says in a matter of fact way in between chewing his breakfast. 

“You just wasted them,” Andre says woefully and takes a bite of the scrambled eggs. It would’ve been so much better with the egg yolks.

\--  
After breakfast, Andre blows Nate in the kitchen before taking a shower to get ready for practice. Nate borrowed some of Andre’s clothes, a faded old plain shirt tight around Nate’s chest and a pair of sweatpants that are a little too short on him. He kinda looks ridiculous, if it just didn’t outline each and everyone of his abs. Andre wills himself to look away.

Nate lets Andre drive this time, regretting his choice as soon as Andre entered the streets. Andre drives like a maniac, almost with no regard to road laws. He did run through a red light and Nate wonders why they haven’t been stopped yet. Andre makes a sharp turn and enters the parking lot of the practice rink. He finds a parking space and turns his car off. 

“We’re here!” he beams at Nate, who's been holding onto one of the car handles. 

“Okay, you’re never driving me anywhere.”

“My driving is not that bad,” Andre pouts and Nate just gives him a look.

Nate is in the middle of grabbing his gym bag when Andre speaks up. “Oh! I almost forgot, uh, Mikko kinda found out that we slept together,” he starts.

Nate blinks at him and rubs the back of his neck, “Ah, um- I can talk to him to not tell anyone?” he suggests, playing with the straps of his bag.

“Oh, I don’t really mind. I told him that you helped me with my heat,” Andre taps a finger on the steering wheel, a nervous tick. He glances at Nate, gauging for a reaction.

“I don’t mind anyone knowing, really,” Nate admits. “But I guess we should talk about…” he trails off, making a gesture in between them. “-this,” he finishes lamely.

Andre nods. “I mean, it- it doesn’t have to be serious? It can be a casual thing,” he blurts out, feeling a spike of anxiety about Nate possibly rejecting the idea of a serious relationship with him. He shifts a glance at Nate and offers a nervous smile. “We can do casual,” he offers.

Nate narrows his eyes at him slightly. “Like a friends-with-benefits kinda thing?” Andre nods and Nate rubs the back of his neck. “Sure, I guess,” Nate says with a tinge of disappointment that Andre doesn’t catch. 

“I mean, only if you don’t mind, of course,” Andre adds awkwardly. “Plus, I might get traded after this season anyway,” he mumbles. The thought of having a serious relationship with Nate leaves butterflies in Andre’s stomach. The thought passes by quickly, blaming his sudden thoughts of _ serious relationships _ to his change of dynamic.

“That’s not gonna happen,” Nate snaps and Andre snaps his head to look at him, bewildered at the seriousness of Nate’s voice. Andre feels his heart swell with hope but squashes it down fast. He shrugs at Nate.

“I’m kinda in a rut, right now,” Andre sighs out truthfully. “I haven’t even gotten any point in the last 7 games. Not even an assist.” He looks down at his hands and twiddles with his thumb before looking back at Nate.

“Well, it’s because you’re eating shitty frozen meatballs,” Nate quips and pushes at Andre’s arm playfully. “Don’t sell yourself short. You’re a good player, Burk and you’re not going anywhere,” he says seriously, holding Andre’s gaze.

Andre just nods and feels some of his anxiety about getting traded at the end of the season slip away. “Thanks,” he mumbles. He flashes Nate a small smile. “C’mon, we’ll be late for practice.”

“That’s my line,” Nate teases and gets out of the car. Andre rolls his eyes and follows suit, grinning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [ my tumblr, feel free to leave prompts or say hi ](https://buwakinnon.tumblr.com/)


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> andre's parents come to visit, thanks to gabe, that fucking traitor

Their arrangement works for them. For the first two weeks, Andre and Nate have spent tangled together on each other’s sheets and any furniture that’s strong enough to hold two grown hockey players. They simply can’t get their hands off of each other.

Andre is whistling as he takes his time taping his hockey stick in the locker room during practice, clearly in a good mood. He had spent the night before with Nate, had breakfast with him, and drove together to the practice building. There’s a looming shadow that suddenly appears and he looks up, raising an eyebrow at Gabe. “Hey?” he pauses taping his hockey stick, noting the seriousness of Gabe’s expression. “Something wrong?”

“Are you and Nate dating?” Gabe blurts out, they’re the only ones left in the locker room. Everyone has already entered the rink to warm up.

Andre can feel his cheeks reddened. “No, we- we’re friends,” he replies and watches Gabe furrow his eyebrows at him. Andre squirms at the attention. “Like, uh, fuck buddies,” he felt the need to add in a defensive tone. “Is it a problem?” 

Gabe shakes his head and sits next to Burky. “I’m just wondering. You guys are practically inseparable this past week…” Andre can hear a hidden ‘and’ at the end of Gabe’s sentence. 

“And?” Andre adds inquisitively.

“And you smell like him,” Gabe finishes and scrunches his nose. “I think he’s been scent marking you.”

Andre’s blushes deeper and looks down to his lap. “Oh.” He has a faint idea of what scent marking is. A flare of want burns deep within him about the prospect of being Nate’s and feels a surge of hope that maybe, _ just maybe_, Nate wants something more with him.

“Anyway, that’s not why I cornered you.” Gabe says, scratching his head.

“Okay, so why did you corner me then?” Andre decides to humor Gabe, still feeling giddy about the news of Nate scent marking him. He’s still new about the change of dynamics and what he knows about them are the little knowledge he still remembers from high school and the crash course he got from the ever insistent doctor. 

“Your mom called me, and she’s a very sweet and kind lady, by the way, and uh- I told her everything about your situation?” Gabe gives Andre a charming smile, as if it would help placate the growing anxiety that started to bubble in his throat. 

“What,” Andre hisses. 

“She’s worried about you! And she’s a very persuasive woman. Also-they’re-flying-in-two-days-to-visit,” Gabe finishes and flashes another dashing smile at Andre. 

Andre glares at him. “I was going to tell them soon! I wasn’t ready!” 

“Well, evidently not soon enough! It’s been like, almost two months. She’s really upset that she had to know it from me.” Gabe watches Andre’s expression, noticing the flash of panic in his face. “Burky?”

“Ah, it’s nothing. Let’s just go to practice,” he gives him a small smile and heads to the rink, leaving Gabe trailing after him with a worried expression. 

He’s been dreading letting his parents know, his sisters already know and promised to keep his secret for as long as possible. He’s sure his mom won’t mind, but the idea of disappointing his dad _ again _ leaves a nasty feeling in his mind. 

\---  
Andre is quiet the whole ride to his condo. Nate has been sending him concerned looks in the middle of driving. “Is something wrong?”

Andre sighs. “My family found out through Gabe about my dynamic change and they’re coming over in two days.”

“I thought they already knew about that?”

Andre shakes his head. “Only my sisters know. I didn’t want to let my dad know, because he’d… I think he’d take it hard,” he admits.

Nate frowns. “What do you mean?”

“Well, he always wanted to have an Alpha son. He took it hard when I presented as a Beta instead,” Andre lets out a bitter laugh. “Even though he’s a Beta himself.” He plays with the hem of his shirt. “I just don’t want to disappoint him or go through that again.” 

Nate drives through the underground parking of Andre’s condo and finds a parking spot. “Well, he should be nothing but proud of you, Burky,” he tells him honestly. “Maybe, he won’t mind at all.” He shrugs. 

Andre ducks his head down. “Thanks, Nate,” he mumbles. “You’re a good... friend.”

Nate inhales sharply but recovers before Andre can notice anything. “Well if you- if you need help with picking them up on Saturday… I don’t mind coming with you.”

“For moral support?”

“If that’s what you need.” Nate says with a comforting smile and turns the ignition off, getting out of the car.

They’re both in the middle of their post-coital cuddling when Andre blurts out, “I wonder how it feels like to take your knot.”

Nate chokes on nothing, halting on playing with Andre’s hair. Andre can feel him take a huge gulp as he laid on Nate’s chest, drawing lazy circles on his chest. 

Nate hasn’t knotted him so far in their little 'arrangement’, and Andre hasn’t really bothered to ask why. He had felt and seen Nate’s knot before. It’s big and he wants it _bad_. His mouth waters at the thought of something that huge filling him up. His cock twitches weakly against Nate’s leg.

“You really intend to kill me, huh?” Nate says breathlessly and presses a kiss on the top of Andre’s head. Andre leans into the touch. 

“Well? How come you haven’t?” Andre turns his head to look at him, Nate’s features are highlighted by the moonlight. He looks beautiful. He stores the image deep in his mind. He catches Nate’s gaze at him, almost chokes at the amount of adoration he can see and feel, it’s almost overwhelming, to be honest. Nate leans down to kiss him and Andre kisses him back with fervor.

“I don’t want to hurt you. Plus, it’s not like you’ve asked before.” Nate resumes on playing with Andre’s hair. 

“Ever the gentleman,” Andre coos and has to turn his head away. In all of his casual encounters with other people, including his teammates from his former team, he’s never shared intimacy like how he is with Nate before. He doesn’t want this moment to end. Plus, he loves how he seems to fit perfectly against Nate, even the height difference between them. Nate makes him feel so deceptively small sometimes, even when he’s the taller of the two.

He wants more with Nate, but he doesn’t want to suffer the heartbreak if the Avalanche decides to toss him out. He lets out a sigh of longing and wills the negative feelings away, determined not to sour this peaceful moment with Nate. 

“And if I ask right now?” Andre bats his eyelashes at Nate innocently. 

Nate groans. “You’re a menace, you know that, right?”

Andre grins and lets his hand trail downwards. Nate’s other hand snaps to catch his wrist before it ventures too low. “We have a game tomorrow.”

Andre juts his bottom lip out and Nate musters all his self control to say, “At least after the game, you nymphomaniac.”

\--- 

Andre picks his parents and his younger sister up from the airport, his mom peppering his face with kisses. 

“How come you didn’t tell us sooner!” his mom reprimands. “I had to fish it out from your Captain!” 

“I’m sorry, mamma,” Andre hugs her, peering at his dad and seeing a neutral expression. He looks away and cajoles them into his car so they can rest up in his condo. They must be tired from the flight. 

He’s thankful that his parents are betas and that his sister hasn’t presented yet that they can’t smell the remnants of Nate’s presence all over his condo. It would be a hell of a conversation starter and Andre wants anything but that. Andre catches them up, telling them the details of the last two and a half months in Denver, carefully leaving the sordid details out.

He led his parents and his sister to their respective rooms and helped them unload their luggages. They’re planning on staying with him for a few days, just before their next away game. He’s on his couch in the living room, texting Nate and letting him know how the last 2 hours went. He feels mentally tired and talking to Nate always magically makes him feel better. 

“Can you ask him to sign my jersey?” His sister quips from behind him, causing Andre to almost throw his phone up from his surprise.

“Jesus, you scared me!” He turns to his sister. “You have his jersey?” 

“Of course, I do,” she says, Andre can hear the hidden _ duh _ in her voice. “Besides, isn’t he going to be my soon-to-be brother in law?” she teases with a smug grin.

Andre bristles, face going red. “And who did you hear that from?” he hisses. He bets it’s Gabe. It’s always him.

His sister mimes zipping her lips, locking it, and throwing away the key. Andre narrows his eyes at her, annoyed. “Is it Gabe? It _is_ him, isn’t it?” 

His sister just looks at him with a cheshire grin and rounds the corner to settle on the couch beside him, reaching for the remote. “I gotta say, you made a good choice. And an alpha, too.” She waggles her eyebrows at him. Andre rolls his eyes at her.

“It’s not serious,” Andre sighs out. He peers at her. “Does mom know?” His sister shakes her head ‘no’ and Andre lets out a sigh of relief. 

“The nurse in school tells me I’m most likely going to present as an Alpha,” she starts. “It could happen any day now.”

“I bet dad was happy about that,” Andre says. His sister makes a noise of acknowledgement.

“Yeah, he was. I think it softened the blow when he found out you presented as an Omega,” she says and Andre can’t help but to wince. 

“Was it really that bad? He didn’t seem that happy to see me at the airport today.”

“Not _that_ bad but he’ll come around, he always does. But it’s okay. You have the rest of us,” his sister gives him a hug, which Andre reciprocates. “and Nathan Mackinnon,” she adds with a giggle. Andre pushes her away with an exasperated groan.

“Shut up,” he says with endearment and rolls his eyes as his sister sticks a tongue out in return.

“Nate and Andre, kissing on a tree-” He doesn’t let his sister finish by throwing a pillow at her face, shutting her up effectively.

\---

Gabe invites Andre’s family over for dinner the next day, because of course he does. Andre believes Gabe has an ulterior motive. His family is eager to come and next thing he knows, they’re all sitting in Gabe's dining room eating food that he’s sure was ordered from the nearby Italian restaurant.

Gabe is really laying it down thick, about how Nathan Mackinnon has been helping Andre figure out his hockey, how they had spent hours just practicing with each other after practice is over, how Nate had shown him around the city and made sure he was comfortable with the city and the team, how Nate did this, how Nate did that.

Andre’s sister looks amused throughout, probably finding it funny, and of course she does. She’s in league with Gabe. And while Andre’s parents, oblivious about the exact kind of relationship he has with Nate, just eats up all what Gabe is telling them How Great Nate Has Been To Andre.

“It’s a shame we couldn’t stay longer. We would’ve loved to officially meet Nathan,” his mom says in Swedish.

“There’s always next time!” Gabe says happily to them back in Swedish and hugs all of them on the way out. “Have a good night and drive safely! I promise, next family dinner, I’ll invite Nate,” he promises them with a wink.

“That Nathan boy sounds like a nice man,” Andre’s father breaks the silence when Andre pulls off from Gabe’s driveway. “Good hockey player, too,” the understatement of the century.

“Uh, yeah, he’s a good teammate. And a friend,” Andre jumbles out, somehow feeling awkward about the sudden conversation.

“Is he an Alpha?” His mother asks, innocently, and Andre flushes. 

“Y-yeah?” Andre steps on the pedal to accelerate, just so he can get out of this conversation sooner.

“Unmated? Single?” His mom presses on and Andre looks at her through the rearview mirror exasperatedly. 

“Mom,” Andre whines. “Can we please not?”

“And why not? _Sweetheart_, I’m _just_ asking,” his mom replies with an eye roll. 

“Yes, he’s unmated, oh my god,” Andre says.

“So he’s an Alpha, unmated, and good at hockey,” his mom says, counting with her fingers. “And attractive.” He hears his sister hum in agreement. “Sounds like a good, _potential_ mate to me.”

Now Andre is really red faced. “Mom, stop,” he pleads. “He’s a _friend_. Nothing more.”

“Stop being dramatic, Andre,” his mom coos. “I’ve always wanted an omega child. You’re the first one in our family in generations, y’know? It’s such a blessing, right, Rob?” His mom leans towards the passenger seat, where Andre’s dad is sitting, quiet and still. 

Andre casts a tentative glance towards him and back to the road. His father’s face looks deep in thought.

It turns quiet in the car for what seems like forever and Andre begins to feel nervous. He looks at the rearview mirror and sees his younger sister’s uneasy face.

Andre, since childhood, always wanted to make his father proud. Tries his best to make up for not being the Alpha son he wanted. Practiced hockey relentlessly, an alpha dominated sport, and tried to mold himself to the man his father would be proud of. He knows his father is proud of him, especially after he had won and brought the Stanley Cup to Malmo, Sweden. He also noticed that ever since winning the cup, that his father isn’t as hard on him as before. But still, insecurity still follows Andre like an overbearing shadow, and he can’t help but to feel that he’d never be truly enough.

So, it takes Andre by surprise when his dad _finally_ breaks the silence with a, ”He sounds like he’d be a good son-in-law.” It momentarily shocks Andre into speechlessness.

“Dad!” Andre splutters. “Not you too,” he bemoans, but can’t help feeling a sense of relief that his father doesn’t mind him being an omega that much. It’s like a huge weight off of his shoulders. 

His sister and mom burst into a fit of giggles on the backseat.

“It’s not funny,” Andre mumbles, embarrassed. “Just because I _suddenly_ changed dynamic doesn’t mean every Alpha friend is a potential mate! Willy is an alpha, too y’know, and we’ve been friends for years.”

“Hm, Wilson isn’t bad too,” his mom supplies after she’s done giggling. 

Andre makes a disgusted expression and fake gags. “Ew, no. Never ever. That’s gross. He’s like a brother to me.” He shudders at the thought, even though he _did_ hooked up once or twice with him, he just can’t see him as anything but his best friend.

“You didn’t react like that when Mom mentioned Mackinnon,” his sister says, observant, and gives him a poke on his side.

“Oh, look at that! We’re back home!” Andre exclaims after swatting his sister’s finger away, parking the car and immediately getting out of the car and out of the conversation.

\---

Nate calls him after Andre texted him about the dinner at Gabe’s house. 

“I’m guessing it went well?” Nate says, voice rough, and it sends a tingle down Andre’s spine. 

“Yeah, _too_ well, in fact. My parents are so in love with Gabe now. Acts like he’s our long lost relative.” He rolls his eyes and hears Nate laugh. He loves it when he laughs, how his eyes crinkle with mirth, and how giddy and warm it makes Andre feel. _ Ugh, feelings._

“He has that effect on people,” Nate says with a knowing tone. His tone lowers, after a moment of pause, “So, what are you wearing?”

Andre bites a grin, settling on his bed comfortably and switches his phone to his left hand. “Oh? Is it that kind of conversation now?”

“Yes. I missed you. It’s been like, days.”

Andre hitches a breath at that and let arousal envelop him. “I know. I missed you fucking me.”

“Fuck, Andre.” He hears a rustle of clothing on the other end. “What else?”

“I want to feel your knot,” Andre confesses and hooks his free hand onto the elastic of his boxers and slides it down, completely off, and takes his cock out, licking his palm and envelops a fist around his cock. He bites off a whimper. “I want you to hold me down, till I can’t move and- fuck, Nate. I wish you were here.”

He hears Nate spit on his hand and groans out, “Yeah? Keep talking, baby. I wish I was there too. I’d take such good care of you.”

Andre moans out a broken _’yes’_ and jacks off faster and harder. He feels his slick trickle out and settle in between his legs, oh how he aches to be filled by Nate.

“I’d hold you down, and just _take_, baby. Fill you up with my come.” Andre hears the slick noises from the other end to turn frantic, desperate. 

“Yes, please, god, I’d be so good. I’d let you do anything to me, let you tie me up, Nate,” Andre whines, keeping it in mind to keep his voice low, out of earshot from his parents who are just a room over. “I’d let you fuck my face, I want to choke on your dick.” He tugs on his dick and reaches over his drawer where he keeps all his toys and gets a dildo that reminds him too much of Nate, lubricating it fast and desperate with his slick that he had gathered with his fingers in between his legs, and pushes the tip into his wanton hole.

“Fuck, I’m so close. If I could, I’d never let you leave my bed,” Nate pants, sounding raw and broken. It makes Andre keen. “I’ll keep you covered in my come. Inside and out. That other alphas and omegas would be able to smell me from you when they walk past you.” 

“_Nate_,” Andre gasps and comes so hard at the thought of being marked completely by Nate, momentarily leaving him blind for a second. He hears Nate come just a few moments after with a choked off groan. He tries to catch his breath, chest heaving and come drying on his belly. He feels tacky and sticky with sweat and slick. He slips the dildo out of him with a wince and tosses it to the other side of his bed.

“That was hot,” Nate breaks the silence and Andre laughs. 

“Mhm.”

“Can’t wait to get my hands on you.”

“Me too. My parents leave tomorrow,” Andre reminds Nate, reaching a tissue over at his end table and begins to clean himself up, too lazy and sated to go to the bathroom to do it properly.

“You can come over after you drop them off the airport.”

“That sounds good,” Andre yawns. “I’ll go get sushi on the way.”

“Sushi? Again?” 

“I don’t see you getting tired of sweet potatoes.”

“Okay, fair. We should head to bed. It’s getting late.”

Andre covers himself with his blanket, snuggling into his pillow while still holding his phone against his other ear. “Mhmm, yeah. I need my beauty sleep.”

He hears Nate laugh. “You don’t need it.”

Andre rolls his eyes, he feels giddy. “Goodnight, Nate,” Andre says softly.

“Goodnight, Burk.”

A pause.

“Are you still there?” Andre says with a chuckle. He feels like a teenager with his first crush all over again.

“I’ll hang up if you hang up first,” Nate retorts, there’s a playful tone in his voice.

“Oh my god, fine. Goodnight. For real this time.”

“Okay, goodnight. See you tomorrow,” Nate says, sweet and soft, and Andre finally hangs up, and lets sleep overtake him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [ my tumblr, feel free to leave prompts or say hi ](https://buwakinnon.tumblr.com/)


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 4k of porn (and fluff ?) to make up for the upcoming angst

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [ my tumblr, feel free to leave prompts or say hi ](https://buwakinnon.tumblr.com/)

Andre sees his family off at the airport and drives to Nate’s house right after he picks up his sushi order. He’s been thinking about taking Nate’s knot ever since they started hooking up, wants to know the feeling of being stretched to the brim, being filled with something so big that he can’t simply _think_ about anything else. He shifts in his seat, already wet from the thought of it.

He parks his car on Nate’s driveway, not noticing that there’s another car on the driveway due to Andre’s haze of lust and imagining what the night entails. He turns the engine off, grabs the paper bag of food, and walks up to ring the doorbell. He hears the muffled sounds of footsteps after a minute or two of standing outside in the cold. 

The door opens and Andre steps in, instantly reaching for the back of Nate’s head and leans down to capture Nate’s lips with his. Nate makes a small noise from the back of his throat and kisses back fervently and Andre drops the bag of food on the end table by the front door and crowds Nate towards a corner of the entry hall, closing the door behind with his foot. Nate’s hands travel from Andre’s shoulder lower and lower until they’re cupping Andre’s ass and squeezes, causing Andre to let out a whimper. Three days without Nate like this was too long for him. 

“You guys better not be fucking there! I’ve been trying to cover your idle ass, Nate!” a deep voice rumbles out from the living room and Andre jumps out of Nate’s hold in surprise. 

“Who-” Andre tries to ask, confused and a little irritated from the interruption.

“Mikko’s here, I was gonna tell you but I got distracted,” Nate says with a sheepish smile and Andre’s heart swells at the sight,_ he’s so cute when he’s shy_, stealing another quick kiss. He’s not too happy to find out about Mikko being here, especially when he was planning on dropping to his knees and blowing Nate by the front door. 

“Is he leaving soon?” Andre asks, hopeful, as he grabs the food. 

“I’ll kick him out soon,” Nate promises and walks him to the living room where Mikko is playing Fortnite.

“You died, by the way, and hi, Burky,” Mikko says, eyes never leaving the screen. “JT, where ya at?” he asks into his headset. Andre tries not to be mortified about the fact that some of his teammates could’ve heard what Mikko yelled earlier. 

Andre sighs. “Hi, I hope you lose.”

“That’s not very nice,” Mikko mutters and Nate rounds the corner to sit by him, picking up the controller. Andre follows him after and sits on the chair near Nate, dropping the bag of food on the table and starts to open the packages out. He tears his chopsticks apart and begins eating, while Nate and Mikko play Fortnite. Fucking Fortnite.

Nate reaches over and picks up a roll, popping it into his mouth. Mikko mirrors the action and Andre looks at the both of them exasperatedly. 

Mikko dies on screen, giving Andre slight satisfaction until the two of them begin a new game. Andre glares down at his sushi, eating it in brooding silence.

“Wanna play, Burky?” Mikko asks, offering his controller. He probably thinks Andre feels left out for not being able to play. Andre shakes his head. 

“No, thanks. I’m here for my dick appointment,” Andre says flatly. He can see Nate choke on his glass of water in his peripheral vision and promptly goes into a mini coughing fit. Mikko just blinks back at him multiple times and shrugs, unbothered and continues to play.

Andre is left sitting there, sexually frustrated for the next 15 minutes. Nate is seriously into the game, all focused attention with a determination to win first place. He knows how painfully competitive Nate can get and how he won’t stop until he does his best to win.

The sushi is all but gone on the table and Andre just wants Mikko to leave, so he can finally get fucked by Nate’s knot. He’s been waiting and thinking about it this whole weekend. 

“I will pay you to leave, Mikko.” 

Nate just shoots him an apologetic glance and mouths a ‘sorry’ as if that would make up for it. 

“I was here first,” Mikko says with a small quirk of his lips and Andre wants to shake him. 

“After this game, I promise, Burk,” Nate promises, earnest. Andre cannot believe that Fornite is seriously cockblocking him. He vows to never play the game _ever_ again. He’ll delete his account when he gets home, he promises to himself out of spite.

“Well, _I’ll_ be upstairs,” Andre announces and gets up from his seat, walks upstairs and into Nate’s master bedroom, shutting the door loud enough that he’s sure they can hear it from downstairs. He knows how petty he’s being. He starts shedding off his clothes one by one as he heads to the connecting bathroom to take a quick shower, despite already taking one before he drove his family to the airport. He just needs to _do_ something. 

After the shower, he raids Nate’s drawers and wears a pair of boxers that are loose and a little short on him, a soft faded hoodie from last year’s All-Star game and plops on the bed face down, waiting and inhaling Nate’s scent in. _Fuck_. He smells so fucking good. He needs him so badly and desperately. He’s not even in his heat, but he hasn’t touched Nate in _days_.

Nate appears on the doorway after a few more minutes, eyes sweeping the room until they land on Andre. Andre is stretched over his bed and on his stomach, idly scrolling through his phone, hair still damp and curling on the edges. 

“Is he gone?” Andre starts, locking his phone and placing it on the end table. 

“Yeah, sorry about that,” Nate says and begins to inch his way towards the bed. The bed dips from the weight where Nate places a knee over, leaning to kiss Andre. Andre happily kisses back. 

“Did you at least win?” Andre reaches for the waistband of Nate’s sweatpants and starts insistently tugging until his cock is free. He’s hard. Andre licks his lips.

“I got second place, some mouthy 13 year old beat me,” Nate says with a tinge of bitterness and it makes Andre laugh. It’s such a _Nate_ thing to do.

“Aww, is your ego hurt?” Andre runs a teasing finger down Nate’s cock, making Nate shiver. “Well, let’s fix that.” Andre looks up through his eyelashes coquettishly. Nate sucks in a breath at the sight and lets out a growl, grabs Andre and flips him over. The sudden change of view makes Andre momentarily dizzy and he hums in appreciation when Nate pins him to the bed by his wrists.

“Fuck, yes, that’s hot,” Andre gasps. Nate puts more weight into pinning him down and he whines, needy.

Andre turns his head to lick and kiss at the pulse point of Nate’s wrist by his head and grinds up against Nate’s cock. “Please,” he almost begs. “Been waiting too long.”

\---

Nate eats Andre out while he’s on his hands and knees for what seems like forever, rendering him fisting the sheets and drooling and whining helplessly. He’s aching to be filled and he reaches back to push Nate’s head away, Nate’s jaw is shiny with slick and lube, lips swollen and cherry red. He looks obscene. 

“Get in me, already, for fucks sake,” Andre growls out. As much as he loves getting eaten by Nate, because he’s like the king of eating ass, he’s desperate to feel and to be filled by his knot.

He yelps when he feels a resounding _smack_ on his ass and slick dribbles out of him. “Look at you, such a _slut_ begging for my knot,” Nate mumbles while pushing his thumbs into Andre to open his hole up. Andre whines and pushes his face into the pillow. He clenches his hole around Nate’s thumbs and hears Nate groan at the sight. “_Baby._”

“Been riding my toys, thinking about you,” Andre says, breathless and gets high pitched when Nate begins to push in. “F-fuck, but- but they’re never big enough,” Andre pants.

“Fuck, baby,” Nate groans and drives his hip flush against Andre’s backside, driving his cock into his prostate, he’s been fucking Andre long enough to know where it is, knows his weaknesses and how to get him to beg to be fucked. He pulls out completely from the tight heat and rocks back in again, making Andre draw out a punched out moan. 

“Harder,” Andre gasps. “I want to feel it.” Hips angling up to meet Nate, he’s so desperate for it. “Please,” he begs, making sure to make it extra whiny because he knows how Nate is weak for it when he begs. He makes a helpless sound when Nate gives it to him harder, toes curling in pleasure. 

Nate slides into him, rough and fast, just how Andre likes it to the point that he’s left speechless and all he can do is moan and babble pathetically. He’s so drunk from how good Nate feels inside him. Nate takes a hold of Andre’s hair and pulls it back, licking and nibbling at his neck. He’d be covered in marks by tomorrow, Andre knows but he can’t bring himself to care. Not when Nate is snapping his hips hard into him that he can barely breathe. 

“You’re so fucking perfect like this,” Nate growls, his fingers digging deep into Andre’s hips, keeping him still for Nate to just _take_.

“I’m close- fuck, please, please,” Andre pleads and Nate flips him over, presses back in and rests his forehead against Andre’s and rolls his hips with abandon. 

“Gonna knot you,” Nate promises, voice rough and drops a kiss onto Andre’s temple as he mercilessly pounds him, thrusts becoming frantic. Andre scrambles to wrap his arms around Nate’s neck, and cries out when Nate bites his shoulder, not on his mating gland, but a few inches away. Andre trembles when he comes with Nate’s name on his lips, vision going white. 

Nate drives a few more thrusts then he goes still deep into Andre that Andre is almost folded over completely, Andre groans at the stretch and digs his fingernails into Nate’s back. “Oh, _god_.” 

Nate’s knot is forming and Andre can feel everything, his nerves are firing and he’s trembling at the overstimulation and the girth of the knot. There’s a momentary panic that he feels, that maybe it’s not gonna fit, and he might’ve said this out loud because Nate is whispering reassurances against his ear that _yes, you can take it baby, you’re doing so good, you’re so fucking perfect_ and the words are so sweet that he feels his eyes sting. 

Andre cries out, the feeling is too much, he’s so full and Nate’s knot is still getting bigger to the point that he’s starting to feel a deep ache where he’s connected with Nate. There’s some pain, at the stretch, but the pleasure that comes with it is so overwhelming that he comes again, spurting all over his belly. He clenches around the knot, knows he’d be gaping afterwards. Nate groans next to him, still littering his neck with kisses and feels his lips flutter against his skin when he praises him. 

“Almost there, baby, I know.” Andre lifts a shaking hand next to Nate’s face and angles it so he can kiss him. The growing stops and he’s fully knotted with Nate. _Holy fucking shit_, he’s so full he could cry.

Nate carefully and slowly puts Andre to a more comfortable position while they’re tied together, Andre making weak little gasps and moans at the feeling. He’s behind Andre now, spooning him as he trembles and clenches around his knot.

“So good, so perfect,” Nate says as he kisses Andre’s shoulder, lifting a finger to fix a curl around his ear. 

“I might have to sit the next game out,” Andre says after a while with a huff. Nate laughs and pinches Andre lightly on his side. 

“I told you. It’s a lot to take,” Nate says, there’s smugness in his voice.

“But,” Andre says and turns his head to give Nate a kiss, “it was totally worth it.”

\---

Andre’s in love with Nate. 

He realizes this the next day, when he pads downstairs with a pleasant ache and sore on all the right places, and sees Nate making _pancakes_. Not that yucky bland tasting protein pancakes Nate would make with protein powder, but _actual_ empty carbs (as Nate would call it) pancakes. He bites off a grin and takes a seat on the barstool, he wants to go behind Nate and wrap his arms on his midsection while he watches him flip pancakes, but they don’t have that kind of relationship. 

They’re fuck buddies, friends with benefits, no strings attached, just two teammates who help satisfy their _needs_ and who helps each other with heats and ruts. Although, he hasn’t seen Nate in a rut yet.

But in a way, he always had an inkling that he might be in love with Nate, hours of trying to help him improve his hockey, gain confidence to shoot more, and not doubt how good Andre’s hockey can be. It’s not just about the hockey part, it’s the little things that he has noticed throughout these past few months. How Nate gets so frustrated when he dies too early in Fortnite, how he takes his coffee with a precise set amount of oat milk, the way his voice gets rough when he’s close to coming. 

And how Nate got pissed at him for saying mumble rap is real rap. It was such a ridiculous thing to get angry for that Andre just laughed and laughed at his face as Nate goes into a tirade of how the rise of soundcloud rappers saturated the rap genre like Andre gave a fuck. It was nice to see that kind of side of Nate, but it didn’t stop Andre for making _ Gucci Gang_ Nate’s ringtone for a whole week, to Nate’s annoyance.

He takes a sharp inhale of breath, not wanting to think about these types of thoughts - negative and positive - this early. 

“Nathan Mackinnon, are you making actual pancakes?”

Nate laughs and places the last of the pancake on the pan onto a tall stack of pancakes. “Yes,” he places the plate in front of Andre and goes to the fridge to get butter and maple syrup, then makes his way back and sits beside Andre. “And with actual butter and syrup.”

Andre gasps dramatically. “You’re spoiling me.” Nate ducks his head down in a bashful way. It’s cute. He wants to wake up like this everyday, live with him, and experience how it’s like to be Nate’s lover. He swallows the lump in his throat.

“Well, last night- I didn’t hurt you right-” Andre waves his hand at Nate as he drenches the stack of pancakes with syrup. 

“You _didn’t_, I’m sore but it’s in a good way. It was good. Last night was good,” he moves the plate so it’s in between them, offering it to Nate as he drives his fork down to take a piece. “We should totally do it again. Soon, when I’m not as sore.” 

\---

January hits and the Avalanche team wins 7-3 against the St. Louis Blues for their first game of 2020. They’re boisterous in the locker room, but have no time to properly celebrate when they have a flight to catch in 2 hours for their series of road trip games.

He boards the private jet and sees Nate sitting alone all the way at the back as Andre makes his way down the aisle. He places his carry on overhead where he usually sits by Mikko, the latter already playing on his Nintendo Switch playing nothing else but Fortnite. He shudders. He has a personal vendetta against the game. He looks back at Nate and Nate is leaning back on the pillow seat, eyes closed and his jaw locked in a hard line with furrowed eyebrows. He looks like he’s in pain and worry sets in on Andre, it’s a different aura than Nate was carrying earlier when he was all joyous grins over his 4 point night. He reaches him and notices how Nate’s scent is also stronger, brighter, and there’s a subtle earthy scent that he hasn’t noticed before. He sees how he has both fists clenched tight on his knees and Andre lightly brushes his hands over them as a greeting. 

“You okay?” Andre says and is about to sit down until Nate opens his eyes, a steely gaze directed right at Andre. He freezes.

“I don’t think...it’s a good idea to sit by me right now,” Nate forces out through gritted teeth. He takes an inhalation and Andre can tell that Nate regrets the action by the small noise he makes. It clicks into place. He’d recall seeing his former teammates act like this when they’re-

“Are you uh, in a rut?” 

Nate closes his eyes and leans his head back and nods. He’s blushing. He flinches when Andre takes a seat besides him, and Andre notices how Nate’s fingernails are digging hard onto his knees. 

“I can help you,” Andre whispers and Nate’s eyes flashes open, and Andre watches how red Nate gets, how his blush spreads all the way down to his neck. 

“You don’t know what you’re asking,” Nate says, voice hoarse and Andre’s pulse jumps up. 

“I know the concept of a rut, Nate, I’m not that clueless.”

Nate turns to face him, his eyes trained on Andre’s lips and travels all the way down to the expanse of his throat. Andre absently rubs his neck at the attention, at the spot he knows where mating marks are usually at and breaks the eye contact and looks down, seeing how hard Nate is. Andre swallows. “I won’t be able to control myself. If you agree- I won’t be able to stop,” Nate simply says, but there's a hard edge in his voice.

Andre looks back at Nate and notices how dilated his pupils are through hooded lids. Andre licks his lower lip and tilts his head, showing his neck as a sign of submission and whispers into Nate’s ears, “I can take whatever you give me,” and stands up from his seat. He walks back to his chair next to Mikko, minutes before the pilot announces that they’re taking off soon. 

“Duuude, everybody can smell you both,” Mikko begins with a disgusted expression when Andre settles beside his seat. Mikko is applying a layer of oil under his nose and the smell of peppermint enters Andre’s olfactory senses.

“Sorry. Nate’s in a rut,” Andre says, not sorry at all.

“Ugh, You gotta stop sitting by me,” Mikko says, irritated. “EJ thinks I have an essential oils problem.” Andre pats his back, he forgets sometimes that as much as people’s pheromones still kinda bother him, he also trips other unmated alphas up. He’s still not allowed to have a proper prescription of actual suppressants. The doctor told him that he needs to have a regular heat schedule of once a month first before he can prescribe the suppressants every omega in the NHL probably has. For now, he has to settle with weaker suppressants and hormone therapy to get his heats to normalize and adapt to his body.

“Sorry,” Andre says, meaning it, and reaches over to get the vial of oil from Mikko, placing some underneath his nose to survive the 4 hour flight to New Jersey.

His phone vibrates in his pocket and when he pulls it out to look, it’s a message from Nate.

_ Room 413 _

\---

Andre doesn’t even get to knock first or ring the doorbell to Nate’s hotel room when it opens, revealing Nate just in his boxers and sweating as if he just ran a mile, pulling Andre in to pin him onto the wall and sticks his nose onto Andre’s neck, breathing his scent in as he rips Andre’s shirt off into tattered pieces. 

“That’s _Gucci_!” Andre says indignantly. 

Andre makes a surprised noise from the back of his throat, clutches onto Nate’s shoulders because that’s all he could do as Nate makes his way onto getting rid of Andre’s pants. He can feel how hard Nate is through his boxers, poking and rubbing on Andre’s thigh. The air is growing heady with the mixture of their pheromones and all Andre can smell is _Nate_ \- it makes him dizzy and he can’t think straight. 

Nate growls when he fails to open Andre’s jeans off and resorts to popping the button off and Andre winces at the action. “You owe me a whole fucking outfit,” he mutters and makes a pained yelp that transitioned into a moan when Nate turns Andre around and pins him to the wall face first, Andre’s arms scrambling to hold onto the wall. Nate is so far into his rut that he’s not saying anything, mind set on to _one thing_ and one thing only. Andre’s so fucking wet for him. 

“God, this is so hot.” Nate spreads his cheeks and Andre’s pulse quickens as he feels Nate pushing against him.

Nate’s dick slips a few times and Andre reaches behind him to help Nate with a, “let me help you,” but Nate grabs Andre’s wrist and uses it to fold his arm behind him and to keep him pinned on the wall. Nate _finally_ pushes in and Andre lets out a loud moan that Nate gets motivated by and starts sliding in and out of Andre with reckless abandon. Andre is dripping wet enough that he can take it, but he can still feel the _stretch_ and it’s so fucking good.

Nate raises one of Andre’s legs and it causes the blunt head of Nate’s cock to push on the bundle of nerves that never fails to make him see stars and suddenly he’s coming with a choked off cry. He clenches around Nate’s cock and Nate goes still, coming inside Andre and slips out - Nate’s still hard and he folds Andre over on the couch and fucks back into Andre in rough staccato thrusts that makes Andre keen.

“Oh fuck- Nate, ah-” Andre babbles, hands gripping tight on the couch pillows and weakly grinds his hips back to meet Nate’s thrusts. His cock is filling back up again, feels himself getting harder especially when Nate is pounding him ruthlessly, keeping him pinned on the couch that he can’t move and his muscles are starting to ache from the awkward position. 

“I need to move-” Andre gasps out and Nate fucking _growls_ in return and it’s hotter than it should’ve been. “Nate! You can’t knot me like this,” he says firmly enough and repeats it again, louder this time, when Nate kept going. Nate finally pauses and slips out of Andre and Andre tries to get his bearings by catching his breath first, gets up from being bent over the couch in trembling legs and gets on his hands and knees on the bed. Nate promptly follows suit, he’s trembling too but with boundless energy.

Andre gets taken and taken by Nate throughout the night, gets fucked stupid by Nate’s knot until he’s crying from the overstimulation and from how good it is. Screams Nate’s name until he’s hoarse, lies pliant on the bed because his legs have given up while Nate keeps on going. And when Nate’s rut finally breaks a few hours later they succumb to a dreamless sleep, fully sated and loose limbed.


	7. Chapter 7

Andre wakes up the next day alone in bed and tangled in hotel sheets and wonderfully sore in all the right places, he reaches over to the area where Nate slept - it’s cold.

He can hear the shower going on from the bathroom and he waits for Nate, stretching like a cat and groaning at how sore he is and how tacky and sticky he feels. He slowly sits up and checks the clock, it’s nine in the morning and he has team breakfast to attend to in an hour. 

He hears the shower turn off and Nate steps out of the bathroom, a towel slung on his hips. His neck is littered in marks and Andre can’t help but to feel smug for being responsible for them. 

“Well, good morning, sunshine,” he greets Nate who just smiles and shakes his head at him. 

“Morning. Uh, are you okay?” Nate looks so worried and it tugs at Andre’s heart. 

“I’m sore and I’m covered in come which is kinda gross, but overall - I’m feeling dandy.”

“Oh, uh- that’s good. Ah- sorry if I was too rough…,” Nate trails off. Andre waves a hand at him to placate his worries.

“It’s _fine_ Nate, seriously. I can take it. And more,” Andre says, flashing Nate a smile and waggles his eyebrows at him. “You can choke me next time, if you’re up to it,” he adds and enjoys the blush that creeps up to Nate’s face.

“_Jesus Christ._”

\---

In the middle of the road trip, Andre notices that Nate is not interacting with him as much as before. Andre shrugs it off, knowing Nate probably wants some space after losing two games in a row and breaking his point streak. He offered to cheer him up with a blowjob but he never got a reply back.

It’s fine, whatever. Andre’s not hurt by it, at all, really. He keeps on telling himself.

They’re back in Denver and Andre receives nothing but silence from Nate. There’s no surprise coffee for him, no impromptu lunch or dinner _’dates’_, and not even a single text from him at all. Andre thinks something is up, gets anxious over it and stays up way too late one night that he has to chug an entire can of Bang in rainbow unicorn flavor before the game and _almost_ scores a fucking hat trick against the St. Louis.

Nate pats him on the back and tells him _’good game’_ after the game but it’s in a clipped tone, but Andre is still high from adrenaline and a shit ton of caffeine and the fact that he had a 2 goal night that Andre forgets about it. Andre makes the decision to stop at Nate’s house that night, surprising the latter, doesn’t give Nate a chance to speak before he drops to his knees to give him an enthusiastic blowjob on his hallway. He comes with just Nate’s fingers up his ass, prodding at his prostate until his vision whitted out and forgets his name for a brief second. 

The next morning, he pads downstairs and sees Nate sitting on a bar stool drinking coffee. There’s no usual after-hookup breakfast and coffee that Andre had grown accustomed to. Nate’s shoulders are rigid and his lips are pressed tight, forming a hard line. There’s something wrong.

“Nate?” Andre’s voice is still hoarse from last night and he takes a seat next to Nate. “Everything okay?”

“I think we should stop hooking up,” Nate says, eyes trained in his now cold coffee. 

Andre feels like he got doused in cold icy water, sending cold electric shock all over the nerves in his body all the way to his feet and feels nothing but numbness.

Andre’s breath catches up in his throat for a moment and feels a pit in his stomach forming. “Okay, can I ask why?” He says slowly and he’s actually proud of himself for not letting his voice waver.

Nate meets his eyes and Andre feels cold from looking at it, there’s no affection at all - he’s not used to seeing Nate giving him a blank look, he’s always full of affection when he looks at Andre. It’s a foreign feeling that he’d never get used to. “I found someone.” 

Andre feels like he just got shot and he’s at the side of the road, bullet hole gaping wide open and Nate just left him there to bleed out and die. It’s not the first time he’s been in this position before, former teammates and friends have said this to him before and he understood from the very beginning that hooking up is temporary. But when Nate says it, it fucking _hurts_ so goddamn much and he feels so stupid that he got _ hopeful_ for a second that maybe Nate actually likes him back _that way_. 

He gives him a shaky nod and plasters on his media smile. “Okay. I’m happy for you,” he says robotically and stands up from the bar stool. “I- I guess I’ll leave.” 

Nate gives him a small smile in return, it looks forced, and looks back down at his coffee, tracing circles around the rim. “I-,” he clears his throat, “it was fun, Burk.”

_ It was fun._ Andre wants to laugh or yell or cry but he refuses to cry over a hookup, because that’s all there is to it. A series of good hook ups and friendly _platonic_ dates and nothing more. It could never be anything more than that. He feels like a used rag, thrown aside and left forgotten because apparently, _ Nate has someone else. _

What hurts more is that Nate decided to say this after he blew him, he can still taste Nate in his mouth from the night before, and Andre is comfortable with his sexuality and sex life but right now, he just feels so fucking dirty. 

“Y-yeah, it was,” Andre says through the lump on his throat and leaves.

\---

Nate leaves for the All-Star weekend and Andre goes with Mikko, Tyson, and Mark to Aspen to watch the Winter X Games.

And if Andre blasts The Weeknd’s _ My Dear Melancholy,_ album non stop on the way, no one makes a comment or tries to stop him.

Andre is laying down on the sofa of their suite, eyes trained on the ceiling and plays _ Wasted Times_ on Tyson’s bluetooth speaker for an hour on repeat. The lyrics are way too relevant for his current situation.

_ And now I’m askin’, who do you belong to now?_

_Who you give that love to now?  
Who you pulling’ up on?  
Who you getting sprung for now?  
And what they got that I ain’t got? ‘Cause I got a lot _

Andre feels his eyes start to sting and he starts to sniffle after the 50th time of hearing the lyrics. He angrily rubs his eyes, feeling wetness. “Fuck, I’m not crying, I swear,” he says to no one.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Tyson says softly. Andre sees him giving helpless looks towards Mikko and Mark.

Mikko finally puts a stop on it and shuts the music off. He hears Mark mutter, _fucking finally_, on the other couch. “I’m guessing something happened,” he starts, a little panicky probably because Andre started sniffling.

Andre glares at Mikko for interrupting his music and sighs. He looks back up the ceiling. “Nate stopped hooking up with me. He said he has-,” he takes a sharp inhale, “he said he _found_ someone.” He tries his hard not to let his face crumple at that, but it hurts so fucking much. 

It’s quiet in the room for a bit, until Mark blurts out a, “I thought you guys were _dating._” Tyson nudges him on the stomach hard, shutting up.

“I don’t want to talk about it. So, if you would please, put my music back on,” Andre turns to Mikko, “but this time can you put it on _Call Out My Name_.” All but Andre groans in unison, but they’re all giving him concerned looks from Andre’s peripheral vision.

“No. You can’t mope around all day,” Mikko says and nudges Andre with a leg, “Get up. We’re going to play laser tag.”

“Yeah! Good idea, it might cheer you up! Even just for a little,” Tyson says helpfully.

\---

The trip helps him forget about his love woes about Nate for a bit, they attend the X games, play laser tag, and when Mark, the only responsible adult in the group, has to leave in the middle of their trip to visit his family, well, it was time to hit the clubs and bars. 

Andre drinks and drinks and drinks, loses himself on the dance floor for a while and lets the strobing neon lights of the club blur around him.

He forgets himself for a while until Mikko and Tyson drag him back to their hotel suite after he tries to get on the bar countertop to dance and make a huge fool of himself.

Mikko is on the ground of the lounge area of their suite, hugging an empty wine bottle and Tyson is cuddling with Andre on the couch. 

“You’re so _warm_, Josty.” Andre croons, his head resting on Tyson’s shoulder, the latter resting his head against his. Tyson is like a space heater. Andre nudges Mikko’s ass with a socked foot. “It’ll be warmer if you’re up here.”

“There’s no space and I don’t wanna move,” Mikko mumbles from the floor. 

“We should make a blanket fort,” Tyson yawns from Andre’s shoulder. 

Andre dwells on the idea and promptly gets up from the couch to his room in wobbly legs, stripping his bed with pillows and blankets and bringing them back out. Mikko and Tyson are watching him curiously. 

“Are you guys gonna help or are you guys just gonna watch-” Andre starts and in the next few minutes, they build their poor excuse of a blanket fort - it’s good enough, considering that they’re still drunk. 

There’s a layer of comforters and pillows on the ground, the coffee table has been pushed to the side of the wall and a blanket has been haphazardly placed over two couches that brackets where they’re currently laying on. 

“Good job, team,” Mikko says, fistbumping Tyson and Andre, missing both of their fists. They take a few minutes trying to properly give each other fist bumps but they eventually give up and settle on the makeshift bed of blankets.

It’s warm and cozy inside the fort, the lights are dimmed and it reminds Andre of his younger days when his sisters and him would make blanket forts and let their imagination run amuck. 

Mikko is updating his Instagram story with Tyson and Andre in the background, showing off their blanket fort. Tyson is scrolling through his feed while Andre has his head resting on his shoulder, watching his phone screen.

“Nate is probably kissing _other_ omegas in St. Louis right now,” Andre sighs, voice despondent, out of nowhere. He’s starting to sober up, the room is not rotating as hard anymore and now there’s just a dull headache creeping in. His lip begins to wobble.

“Nate doesn’t even hook up,” Mikko mumbles. Irritation flares up in Andre at the statement. 

“Yeah, he made that perfectly clear, Mikko,” Andre cries out, turning to look at Mikko. He has the need to prod at him angrily with a toe. “Was I just- was I just a hookup experiment then?” 

“Nate wouldn’t do that,” Tyson says reassuringly and rubs at Andre’s back. 

“That’s not what I meant at all, dummy.” Mikko reaches over and flicks him on the nose and Andre retaliates by trying to bite his finger. “_No,_ maybe Nate wasn’t even planning onto hooking up with you in the first place.” He goes back to scrolling through his Instagram feed, “It was your idea to keep it as a fuckbuddies kinda thing anyway,” he continues to mumble out. 

“Did Nate talk to you? How do you even know that?” Andre squints at him and Tyson puts his phone down to watch them in interest, the hand on his back is gone and Andre misses the warm comforting contact. Andre nudges Mikko on the side. “_Also, what do you mean?_”

“I think I said too much,” Mikko says quickly and turns his back on Andre and Tyson and starts to snore obnoxiously, feigning sleep. 

Unwilling to give up, Andre reaches a hand on Mikko’s shoulder and begins to shake him, jostling Mikko to his annoyance. “No, tell me, c’mon, tell me, tell me, tell me,” Mikko covers his ears with his ears and starts saying incoherent babbling to try and cancel out Andre, “-tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me-”

Andre almost topples over when he feels something smack him on the back of his head and turns to Tyson with a look of hurt betrayal. Tyson is holding another one of the decorative pillows that was on a couch and throws it at Mikko, shutting them both up in an instant. Andre watches the pillow bounce from Mikko’s ass. “Would you guys _stop_ already!” Mikko and Andre are both looking at Tyson. “Thank you,” Tyson says after a moment of silence. “I feel like I’m babysitting.”

“I think what Mikko meant is that Nate wanted to be your _boyfriend_,” Tyson says matter of factly.

“Tyson, I thought you were on my side!” Mikko hisses.

“Omegas gotta stick together. Also, you guys were making my headache worse.”

“Nate’s gonna kill me,” Mikko bemoans.

“Dude, I just want to sleep.”

Andre is still in a slight drunken stupor that thinking is very hard right now. But he’s stunned into silence from Tyson’s words, tries to think over it. There’s still a flicker of hope that gets squashed down when he remembers something. “Well not anymore, obviously, since he said he found someone.”

“And you believe that?” Mikko says.

“If there _is_ someone, shouldn’t you know that by now? You’ve been spending time with Nate 24/7,” Tyson says, his voice softening. 

\---

They end up passing out together on the blanket fort and waking up the next morning with matching pounding headaches that follow them all the way to Denver. 

The trip was fun, even though he spent the first half moping around about his _love life_. Now that he’s back in his condo alone, with no Tyson or Mikko to distract him, loneliness starts to eat at him. He’s so used to spending so much time with Nate that it’s a foreign feeling when he’s not beside Andre.

He thinks about what Mikko had said while he was drunk and dwells on it while he’s on his back laying on his bed, staring at his ceiling. He thinks about the possibilities that it could be true while also doubting them as well. It sucks feeling like this. It shouldn’t be _this_ complicated. 

Andre falls asleep in the middle of his internal monologue about Nate and wakes up sweaty and so so _ wet_. Of course his body thinks it’s the best time to have a heat now.

He groans out loud and kicks the blankets off of his bed in frustration and grabs the toys he kept in the drawer by his bedside. 

This is the _worst_ heat he’s had so far.

The feeling of aching need to be filled doesn’t go away no matter how many times he comes from his fingers and while riding his toys. He’s left squirming and whining alone in his bed for an alpha that isn’t there. For Nate who doesn’t want him.

It’s seven hours into his heat and he’s still unsated and he’s just tired at this point, feels like he just finished multiple bag skates but worse because on top of feeling fatigued, he feels so fucking horny and _nothing_ he does alleviates his heat that at one point he begins to sob.

He just wants this to end that he’s desperate enough to grab his suppressant bottle and takes four of them at the same time, swallowing them down with a glass of water. 

It helps him calm his heat down after an hour when the suppressants finally hit, but there’s still an unwavering need to get filled up. He can’t help but to blame this on Nate, if he was just _here_ he wouldn’t have to go through this agonizing state of being horny for his cock alone. 

He wakes up from his alarm, loud and blaring. His head feels heavy and every muscle in his body protests when he tries to move them. He grabs his phone from his end table to turn his alarm off, wincing at the sticky gross feeling in between his legs. 

He forces himself to get ready to head for practice and stops by a Starbucks drive thru to order a triple shot espresso and downs it on the way to the practice arena. 

\---

Andre plays like shit during practice, fortunately enough that it’s only Wednesday and they don’t face the Flyers until Saturday. He’s getting concerned looks thrown his way from some of his teammates that notice and he tries to wave it off with a forced smile. He just wants to go back home and sleep the afternoon off. His teammates scatter off, some going to lunch together and some going back home to their families. There’s just Andre, Nate, and a few rookies who are planning to practice some more. 

The rookies leave the locker room back to the rink and Andre is stuffing his dirty gym clothes into his gym bag when he feels someone staring at him, and feels the hair on the back of his neck rising. He knows it’s Nate, it’s the only other person here with him and he can smell the crisp smell of apples and the scent of fresh ice - Nate’s scent. It’s been a while since he’s seen him, been a while since he’s touched him, and Andre needs to leave because if he stays here any longer - he might do or say something stupid.

“Are you okay, Burk?” Nate breaks the silence and Andre sucks in a breath. 

“Yeah, I’m just tired.” Andre zips his gym bag close and grabs it, already eyeing the exit but there’s a part of him that wants to stay a little longer, enjoy Nate’s presence a little more after a week without him.

“You wanna um, have lunch?” Nate asks, casual but Andre notices how tight he’s gripping his gym bag and there’s a nervous tone in his voice.

Andre would love to, but he’s still blaming Nate for having to spend the worst heat he’s had alone even though he knows he’s just being childish and that it’s not Nate’s fault at all. 

“Maybe some other day? I just want to catch on sleep,” Andre says honestly, avoiding eye contact with Nate. He turns to start walking towards the exit but pauses when he feels a tight grip on his wrist.

“Wait, Burky-” Nate blurts out, almost desperate, and Andre meets his eyes then downwards to where Nate is still gripping his wrist. “Oh, sorry.” Nate releases his wrist and lets his hand hang. Andre immediately misses the contact back.

Andre frowns at him - Nate is kinda acting weird, twitchy almost. “Are _you_ okay?” 

“I’m in love with you,” Nate says in a breathless rush and flushes deeply. “_Shit_, that is not how I wanted to say that.” He rubs a hand down his face.

Andre’s breath catches in his throat, his heart is fluttering and he feels like he just misheard Nate. “What?” he says, voice small. 

Nate visibly deflates and starts to fumble on his words. “I- it’s why I had to stop hooking up. With you. Um, I was trying to _date_ you, actually, but you wanted to hook up and I couldn’t say no and-”

Andre drops his gym bag to his seat and grabs Nate by the front of his shirt and presses their lips together, effectively shutting Nate’s awkward fumbling up. All the tiredness seems to seep out of Andre, now replaced with giddiness and holy shit _ Nate loves me._ He pulls away from Nate with a lopsided smile. “I love you too.” He’s been wanting to say those words at him and hearing them back from Nate, he no longer can contain his happiness.

“You do?” Nate sounds surprised and Andre rolls his eyes at him and leans in to capture his lips again. 

Andre punches Nate’s shoulder lightly. “Yes, you _jerk_. I had the worst heat last night and I had to spend it _alone_,” he says with irritation but he’s still smiling wide - he reckons he’d be smiling for the rest of the week. “Say it again.”

“I love you,” Nate repeats, voice soft. “And I’m sorry you had to spend your heat alone.” He presses an apologetic kiss onto Andre’s lips then nuzzles his nose on Andre’s throat, his free hand on Andre’s hip. “I promise that I’ll make it up to you.” There’s a finger rubbing on Andre’s hipbone and it sends pleasant shivers down to the base of his spine.

“You better,” Andre mutters and breathes in Nate’s scent - he’d missed this so much, missed Nate’s presence against him, it’s been a long bye week. This bye week had been a rollercoaster of emotions for him and now it’s all forgotten because Nate is here and he loves Andre back. “Take me home,” Andre demands.

Nate pulls away to look at him, lips pursed up in amusement but there’s an obvious want in his eyes. “I was planning to wine and dine you first.”

Andre rolls his eyes at him, endearment filling him up. “I spent a heat alone, I was like, depressed most of bye week because of you,” he emphasizes this with digging a finger onto Nate’s sternum, “I shed like, a _tear_ over you - you have a lot of making up to do, MacKinnon.”

“Only one tear?” 

“_Alpha_,” Andre whines in a low voice, dripping with need. 

“Shit, okay, let’s go, let’s go,” Nate relents with a shiver.

\---

“So you said you were trying to date me,” Andre starts when he settles into the passenger seat of Nate’s car. “Since when?”

“Are you serious?” Nate asks, turning the ignition on and turns to Andre in disbelief. “I thought I was being obvious; I picked you up every day for practice with coffee, we literally had almost every meal together, _and I ate a 300 calorie donut for you._”

Andre bristles at the last one but he can’t stop grinning, giddy with happiness. He had brought Nate an Avalanche themed donut one time because he saw it displayed on one of the cafes on the way to the practice rink to surprise him and it before he knew about how serious Nate is when it comes to his nutrition. “I thought you were just being nice because I’m new here,” he mumbles and looks out the car window as Nate begins to drive. 

“You really think I would break my diet for anyone? _Andre_.”

“Well, you could’ve just told me from the beginning! We could’ve been dating for months now,” Andre says defensively. “Plus, I thought I didn’t have a chance when I was uh, still a beta anyways.”

Nate gives him a look and turns to watch the road. “Beta, omega, or alpha, I still would’ve tried. Secondary genders don't matter to me.”

Andre’s face heats up at the confession and really looks at Nate - cheeks red and with a serious expression on his face. His heart swells with so much affection for him.

“Plus, you’re the one who wanted to keep it casual,” Nate says, making a turn. 

“I panicked! It was my first heat with someone and I didn’t want to run you off with my feelings. I’m not really used to serious relationships,” Andre mumbles, feeling chastised. And it’s true, he’d never really had a serious relationship before, only hooked up before because it was easier and stress-free. Until Nate.

“So, we’re serious? You and I?” Nate says shyly, unsure all of the sudden - it’s cute. Andre loves him so much.

“Yes. One hundred percent. I’m not letting you go now,” Andre says with determination and reaches over to squeeze Nate’s free hand. “Can you drive faster,” he whines.

“You’re awfully demanding today,” Nate squeezes his hand back and presses his foot on the accelerator pad harder. 

“You said you’ll make it up for me,” Andre says pointedly but in a teasing manner.

“I feel like it should be _you_ who should be making up for me.” They’re just a few more minutes away from Nate’s house and Andre can’t fucking wait any longer. “Jesus, Burk, you thought I was just being _nice_.”

“We’ll both make it up for each other then,” Andre says, eyes rolling. 

“You think if Kadri offered me a donut I’d eat it?” 

Andre sighs dramatically and leans forward to plant a peck on Nate’s cheek. “Okay, okay, Nate. I’ll make it up for you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [ my tumblr, feel free to leave prompts or say hi ](https://buwakinnon.tumblr.com/)


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it's the end!!  
Thank you for everyone who left kudos, comments, bookmarks, and who fully read this fic. This was my first fic ever written, so thank you for being patient with me. I learned a lot and I'm excited for my next story!

Andre lets Nate press him onto the bedroom door as soon as Nate closes it, leaving marks all over the expanse of his throat. Andre has one leg hooked around Nate’s hip, grinding against Nate’s bulge. His boxers are sticking to his skin, already wet and ready and begging for Nate. 

Andre trails a hand under Nate’s shirt and bunches the shirt up until it’s off of him and slides a hand over Nate’s toned chest. “Fuck, you’re so hot,” he says, voice low. “You have no idea how much I’ve missed this.” A week without Nate is almost too much.

Nate shuts him up with an open mouthed kiss, aggressive and possessive, tongue delving in to taste Andre - it makes Andre whine in the back of his throat and if Nate isn’t in him in the next five minutes, he’s sure he’s going to combust. 

“Nate, we can do slow later,” Andre says once they pull away from each other, a hand on his chest - moving along with Nate’s breathing. He can feel Nate’s heartbeat steadily thudding against his palm. “I need you now,” Andre says, voice laced with need.

Nate makes a noncommittal noise and hoists Andre up and drops him on the bed, Andre bounces on the bed and Andre uses this time to take his shirt off, kicks his pants and boxers off after. Andre loops a finger on one of Nate’s belt loops and tugs. 

“Take it off.”

“Bossy,” Nate mumbles into Andre’s lips but concedes and makes a slow show of taking his pants and boxers off. Andre whines at him and feels himself produce more slick. His thighs are shiny and slick already - he needs Nate so badly. 

“Nate, c’mon,” Andre groans out when Nate’s dick springs out as Nate lowers his boxers awfully slowly to tease Andre. “_Alpha_, please fuck me. Right now”

Nate lazily strokes his cock in front of Andre, boxers forgotten somewhere on the floor. “How do you want it, baby?”

“Hard and fast,” Andre says, quick. He’s so fucking hard and wet for Nate, just wants Nate inside already. He aches so badly for him. He switches positions and gets on his hands and knees, knowing how weak Nate is when he’s like this, all submissive and presented for him to take. He wiggles his ass at him, spreads himself apart for him, clenches his ass at nothing. He feels wetness dripping on his thighs and he’s aching with so much need. “Please, Nate, please, please,” he begs. 

He can hear Nate make a litany of curses behind him and Andre keens, high pitched and with wanton when he feels Nate press two callused fingers in him. “You’re already so wet and open for me,” Nate says in wonder and crooks his fingers into Andre’s prostate with master precision, making him squirm. 

“Fuuuuck,” Andre gasps as he arches his back. He’s still open from last night and a little sore from how many times he tried to fuck himself. Nate presses a kiss on the base of his spine as he begins to fuck Andre with his fingers, wet slick noises on top of Andre’s needy moans begin to permeate the room. It’s so dirty how soaking wet his is, but Andre can’t find himself to give a fuck right now. 

“Nate, I need your knot,” he pants, brows furrowed. “Now.”

“Hmm,” Nate hums with a teasing lilt. “I want you to come on my fingers first.” Andre groans, his eyes rolling when Nate adds a third finger and spreads them out inside him, feeling the dull ache of the stretch that starts on the base of his spine. He’s so sensitive, knows how puffy his hole still is from his heat. 

“‘So good,” Andre slurs as he pushes back on Nate’s fingers and all he can do is whine and moan as Nate starts fucking his fingers fast and rough, making sure to hit his prostate every time. The feeling is too much and Andre comes all of the sudden, painting the sheets underneath him white, just on Nate’s fingers and it leaves him trembling and keening as Nate is still driving his fingers too fucking fast for Andre’s body to comprehend, milking his prostate.

“Wait, Nate- fuck, fuck,” Andre tries to grab at Nate’s hand to stop him but it gets swatted away, and he’s gripping the bed sheets tightly as he comes again from the overstimulation. He’s trembling nonstop and he’s still weak from last night and the fact that they just got out of practice that he lets his arms give out, pushes his head onto the sheets as Nate slows his fingers inside him down.

Andre clenches weakly around Nate’s fingers and feels Nate gets situated behind him, lubing his hard cock against Andre’s crease that’s wet and shiny with slick. 

Nate grips at Andre’s hips and begins to push, breaching Andre’s hole and sliding all the way in with a satisfied groan. He begins to rock into Andre, fast and hard just as Andre had asked. 

“I missed this so much,” Andre mumbles, clenches weakly around Nate’s cock and making Nate’s thrusts falter. “Missed feeling full of you.” Nate pulls away, almost all the way out then thrusts back in with vigor. 

“You feel so good around me,” Nate murmurs, jerking his hips against Andre’s. The bed creaks with their fucking and Andre is sure the headboard of the bed rubbing against the wall will leave some sort of damage to the paint of Nate’s bedroom.

Andre loves this position, just ass up high in the air while Nate just slams into him, and all Andre can do is grip at the sheets uselessly as he gets taken. Wishes he was in heat right now so they can do this all night long - he always wants to be full of Nate.

“Fuck, you’re such a slut for me,” Nate groans out, Andre must’ve said the last part aloud and he whines in acknowledgement, gyrates his hips to show how much of a slut he really is for Nate.

“Only for you,” Andre gasps, breath hitching every time the head of Nate’s cock prods his prostate dead on. “Want you always.” 

“_Andre,_ fuck, I’m close baby,” Nate panted in Andre’s ear. “You gonna be good for my knot?” Nate asks, voice rough and punctuates it with a rough thrust that targets the bundle of nerves that makes Andre’s toes curl and sees stars. So fucking good, he can easily get drunk from this - he already is.

“Yes, yes, please, give it to me,” Andre chants desperately like a player and pushes his hips back in time with Nate’s sporadic thrusts, trying to chase his pleasure even though he’s sure he can’t handle coming for the third time - feels that it would be too much and the fact that he’s not in heat. His mouth gapes open in a wordless cry when he feels Nate’s knot swelling inside him. 

Nate rests his forehead, slick with sweat, on Andre’s shoulder, pressing kisses as his knot forms. Nate stills for a moment, letting Andre adjust and Andre relishes how stretched out he is from Nate’s knot - he feels so fucking _full. _

“You think you can come again? On my knot this time, baby?” Nate says in a low timbre, he’s still pressing kisses on Andre’s shoulders, leaving possessive marks and bites - just near enough the mating gland. Andre wants Nate to claim and bite him there, but it’s not the right time yet and saves the thought for later. 

“Andre,” Nate says when Andre didn’t answer, slapping a hand on the cheek of Andre’s ass and it makes him clench around Nate and whine at the momentary sharp pain. 

Andre shakes his head against the sheets. “I don’t think I can,” he pants out. His vision blurs when Nate’s knot is fully formed, it’s so big and he’s so, so full that he feels like he can taste it from the back of his throat. There’s a dull ache where he’s stretched wide on Nate’s knot that sends electrical currents all over his body that’s followed by blinding pleasure. It’s the perfect balance.

“I think you can, one more time, for me,” Nate murmurs into Andre’s ear and then starts he _moving_ his hips. 

Andre makes a sound akin to a wounded animal, _it’s too much._ He can’t, it’s too much. “Nate-” he cries out, high pitched and helpless. Nate starts to slowly fuck his knot into Andre, and Andre feels so hollowed out, feels like he’s being split open but in a good way. “Too much, too much, Nate-” He sobs wetly on the sheets, legs giving out but Nate has a tight grip on his hips to keep them up and steady. 

“You’re doing so good, baby. Taking my knot so well,” Nate grunts above him and Andre is making embarrassing noises, so overwhelmed with the feeling of Nate sliding his knot into him aching slow and deep and he feels so fucking open. 

“Nate, _Nate,_ ah-”

Nate starts to pick up the pace and it renders Andre useless - he doesn’t even register what he’s saying or what noises he’s making anymore, he’s so lost in the pleasure of Nate’s knot driving into him and stretching him so impossibly wide that he knows he’ll have trouble walking the next day. Nate’s hand travels down to wrap a hand on Andre’s dick - he’s hard again and dripping precome on the sheets, he didn’t even notice that he got hard again. He’s still so sensitive from earlier that he tries to buck away from Nate’s fist around him but ends up pushing back on Nate’s knot, sending shivers down his spine. Andre makes a punched out sound, he can barely breathe from all the overstimulation.

Nate is saying something above him, not sure what and the hand around Andre is gone and it settles on his ass. Andre keens when Nate rubs his thumb on the vulnerable area where they’re connected, where Andre is stretched wide to the brim around Nate, and it makes Andre come hard that his ears ring, squeezing and fluttering around Nate’s knot weakly. 

Nate follows soon after with a grunt and a bite on Andre’s shoulder, empties himself and fills Andre up with his come. Andre is trembling from all of it, loose limbed and lets Nate move them into a more comfortable position, Nate spooning him.

Sleep overcomes Andre almost immediately, he’s so fucking tired and the last thing he remembers is Nate whispering softly to him, Nate slipping out of him and feeling the gush of slick and come following that should be embarrassing for Andre but he can’t bother to care right now, especially when he’s all used up and tired. He remembers the press of a warm damp rag against his thighs as Nate cleans him up before everything fades into darkness, a warm body pressed behind him.

* * *

Andre wakes up from the rays of sun peeking through the blinds and the smell of something sweet and delicious. He opens his eyes and rubs the sleep off, seeing Nate situated beside him playing on his phone. Andre hums with a sleepy smile and stretches, wincing at the pleasant soreness that follows. 

Andre nuzzles closer and drapes an arm around Nate’s waist. “Mornin’,” he mumbles. He sniffs the air, he can smell Nate - knows his scent like the back of his hand - and something else. “What’s that smell?”

Nate pets Andre’s hair - a tousled mess that rivals a bird nest and puts his phone down to press a kiss on the top of his head. “Morning. I made you pancakes,” he says and gestures to the tray of food resting on the end table.

Andre sits up gleefully, fully awake now - bites a lip when he feels how sore his ass is. “You made me breakfast in bed?” Affection fills Andre as he watches Nate’s cheeks turn pink - even after all they’ve done last night and for the past few months, he still gets shy. It’s so endearing. “_Nate,_” he says, warm and sweet.

Nate ducks his head shyly and grabs the tray of food and settles it on the bed. There’s a bottle of Fiji water, a cup of coffee, a stack of pancakes, syrup and a knob of butter. Andre’s stomach growls in response.

Andre immediately starts spreading butter on the pancakes with a bread knife and follows it by drenching the stack with maple syrup. Nate winces at the amount of syrup he pours. He takes a bite and his eyes briefly close and moans shamelessly as the burst of warmth and sweetness overwhelms his mouth. “Yuuuumm.”

“Um, I got you something else too,” Nate starts after watching Andre take more bites, he kinda sounds nervous.

“You do?” Andre asks, voice muffled as he chews on a piece of pancake. 

Nate pulls a familiar black box from the floor, Andre instantly recognizes it - it’s the classic Gucci gift box packaging - and hands the box to Andre, who happily takes it from him. “You didn’t have to get me anything!” 

Nate chews on his lower lip. “I still haven’t replaced that shirt I, uh, ripped when I had my rut.” He clears his throat. “I’ve had it for a while, I just-”

Andre interrupts him with a kiss, mouth sweet and sticky with maple syrup. “Thank you. You didn’t really have to, y’know?” Andre tugs on the black skinny ribbon and opens the gift box, ripping the wrapping paper and pulls out an exact replacement of the shirt Nate had tore off of him during his rut. 

“Jeez, Nate. Crazy good sex, breakfast in bed, and a Gucci present? You’re spoiling me.” 

Nate presses his lips against Andre. “Love you. And you deserve it. I was kinda an asshole to you for a few weeks,” he admits.

“I love you too,” Andre says immediately back and slides the tray further to the front of the bed and goes to situate himself in between Nate’s legs. “That’s water under the bridge.” Andre smirks devilishly as he runs a hand down Nate’s chest. 

“It’s my turn to make it up for you,” Andre murmurs, hooking a finger on the waistband of Nate’s boxers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [ my tumblr, feel free to leave prompts or say hi ](https://buwakinnon.tumblr.com/)


End file.
